Literally seconds before Matt Irwin scored the third Nashville Predators’ goal on Friday night, TSN’s Darren Dreger dropped a golden nugget of info via Twitter regarding heavily-rumored Colorado Avalanche center Matt Duchene.
It’s believed Ott/Col/Nash were in discussions on 3 way trade involving Matt Duchene going to Sens. Talks have ended. No deal.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) November 4, 2017
Duchene has been on the trading block for over a year now and the Preds and Ottawa Senators have both been frequently mentioned whenever the subject comes up.
Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman added some clarification after the Dreger tweet.
Last note: Turris (NASH), Duchene (OTT), haul of picks and maybe prospect or two (COL). No Ekholm.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) November 4, 2017
While Ottawa’s Kyle Turris isn’t exactly the name Preds fans were hoping to hear associated with their team, on paper, he’s not that far away from Duchene. Since the lockout in 2012-13, he’s tallied 244 points while Duchene has amassed 276. In that same span, Turris has put the puck in the back of the net 105 times and Duchene has potted 112. Finally, both players are extremely durable as Turris has logged 357 of a possible 389 games since the lockout and Duchene has appeared in 365 of a possible 388.
Also of note, Avalanche GM Joe Sakic seems to have finally moved off his previously hard-lined stance of a young top-four defenseman as part of the return for Duchene. Could this open the door for Nashville to work directly with Colorado instead of involving a third team?
Regardless, to hear such concrete info from two of the best in the industry is very intriguing.
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PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Fuqua (used with permission)
