TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss his conversation with MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley and the urgency he is putting on the Leafs’ season, the latest with the arena construction delays for the main ice hockey venue at the upcoming Olympics and Alex Ovechkin’s undecided future beyond this season.
Gino Reda: The boss says it’s ‘go time’ for the Leafs, problems on the Olympic hockey front, and is this is it for Ovi?
We’ll discuss all these topics with our Insider Pierre LeBrun today – Pierre, let’s start in Leafland, where you had an interesting conversation with the man at the very top.
Pierre LeBrun: Yeah, Keith Pelley, CEO and president of MLSE, I caught up with him yesterday at the Board of Governors meeting in New York and as you know, Pelley has taken more of a day-to-day role with the hockey team after Brendan Shanahan was let go last spring.
One of the things that Pelley said is it has been really enjoyable to “work more” with Brad Treliving and Craig Berube.
Within all that I asked Pelley about the fact that with Mitch Marner’s exit it does leave the Leafs with more cap flexibility and also with a hole.
One of the things that Pelley said is that it’s “go time,” especially with the cap going up. If you read between the lines there, he’s saying that Treliving has the full green light to take a swing here before the March 6 trade deadline this season.
Which isn’t surprising – Treliving has talked openly himself about hoping to upgrade with a top-six forward if he can between now and the deadline and also the fact that the Leafs are deep in their window here.
As Pelley said yesterday, “look at the age of our roster,” there’s some urgency to wanting to get over the hump here this year. Easier said than done in terms of taking that swing.
The Leafs don’t have a first-round pick in the draft in June, they don’t have a first-round pick the year after that, they traded those picks away, so they’re going to have to be pretty creative I think.
Obviously they’re going to try, but I’m just saying it isn’t as obvious as it sounds that they’re going to go out and upgrade before March 6.
Reda: We’re less than four months away from puck drop at the Winter Olympic Games, and there’s some concern about the main arena where they’re supposed to play the hockey tournament Pierre. Give us the latest news on that front.
LeBrun: Here’s what’s happened here in the last couple of days: the Associated Press had a story out of Milan confirming with local Olympic organizers that the test event for the main hockey arena has been scrapped for December because they weren’t sure the arena would be ready, and that sent out red flags everywhere.
Commissioner Gary Bettman, after the Board of Governors meeting, told us that he is concerned, and he’s been concerned for a couple of years, but since then, I asked the IOC for a reaction to all this last night.
They got back to me this morning and what they said is that they believe the arena will be built by mid-December and that there is now a planned test event for early January for this arena.
Let’s hope that’s true. Let’s hope that all happens because obviously there’s a lot of people concerned because there is no Plan B. I do not believe the IOC has another Plan B and another rink they can go to for the men’s and women’s Olympic Hockey tournament so a lot of people are paying close attention to this developing situation.
Reda: Still on the international scene, Russia is still banned from the Olympics, so we won’t see [Alexander Ovechkin] at the tournament, so what is Ovechkin’s future in the NHL?
He’s in the final year of his contract with the Capitals – do we see him extend this year, or do you think this is going to be it for the game’s all-time leading goal scorer?
LeBrun: So it’s undetermined, and that in itself is an important update. There’s this idea, I think, that he knows and the Caps know, and they want to keep it a secret.
I talked to someone in the Capitals’ organization in the last 24 hours and they said that’s not the case.
They really emphasized that Ovechkin is not sure yet, he wants to play this season, see how his body feels, see how the team is, and at some point will make a decision.
The Caps themselves don’t know where this is all headed. Obviously if he wants to come back for another year they’ll sign him with open arms.
The reason there’s been some mystery to all this is there was an email that went out to season ticket holders last season from the Capitals that said “come and enjoy Alex Ovechkin’s last season.” That email was quickly brought back in and there was a statement from the team that said “that is not the case, we don’t know.”
The bottom line is that Ovechkin is going to see how he feels, then he’ll decide.
Reda: We’ll miss him when he’s gone, another major milestone is on the horizon for Ovi: he’s just three goals shy of 900 for his career.
