Evan’s NHL Daily: Trouble in Calgary, Erik Johnson Era Likely Over

We already knew the Calgary Flames were going to be one of the more interesting teams in the NHL to watch this summer, but the news on Thursday made it even more interesting, as it seems like they’re having trouble convincing anyone to stick around.

With the Colorado Avalanche, it appears it’s the end of an era, as the longest tenured player on the team is set to hit free agency.

All that and more in this Friday edition of Evan’s Daily.

Colorado Hockey Now

Erik Johnson joined the Avalanche in February of 2011, and it appears Game Seven against the Seattle Kraken will be his last with the organization, as a report came out on Thursday that he will likely not be re-signed.

With the news of Johnson apparently headed towards free agency, we took a look at some potential replacements. There will be options in free agency, a few in trade, and the Avalanche could even try to replace him internally.

On Friday, we’ll have an updated trade board for the Avalanche, including some new names around the NHL.

NHL Trade Chatter

It sounds like everyone wants out of Calgary right now, and a few of them might be of interest to the Avalanche. Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Mikael Backlund, and Tyler Toffoli all seem to be leaning towards not re-signing with the Flames, and it may be forcing them into a potential rebuild.

Frank Seravalli just destroyed any hope in the Flames franchise in under an hour pic.twitter.com/H0Xx2QpBtD

— Nathan "Grav" (@NathanGraviteh) June 22, 2023

Could they move all of these guys this summer? Sure, but that’s a lot of players to move in one summer, and they still have to ice a team next year. Lindholm would likely bring back the biggest return, but they’re all real good players, so if they do move towards a rebuild, they could get some real good assets to get that kickstarted. And then you wonder what a guy like Nazem Kadri starts to think…

National Hockey Now

Pittsburgh: The Penguins may need to replace Jason Zucker, and here are four options for them, including J.T. Compher.

Boston: David Krejci came back for one more year last summer, but it sounds like he’s leaning towards retirement right now.

Philadelphia: The Flyers still think Kevin Hayes can help them. Does that mean they’ll keep him?

Nashville: Is Juuse Saros really on the trade block?

New Jersey: What do the Devils do in net? James spoke to former NHL goaltender Mike McKenna for his thoughts.

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