The latest NHL News on August 20 has produced an interesting mix of confirmed league news and trade-market intrigue, with Leon Draisaitl getting a future homecoming in Germany while three prominent NHL veterans remain at the centre of very different roster questions.
The biggest confirmed development came Thursday when the NHL announced that the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins will each play two regular-season games in Germany during the 2027-28 season. Edmonton will play in Cologne, the hometown of Draisaitl, while Boston will play in Munich, the hometown of Bruins forward JJ Peterka. Dates and opponents have not yet been announced.
That is important NHL news beyond simply adding four international games. It gives the league a legitimate superstar to build around in one of its priority European markets. Draisaitl is already the highest-scoring German-born player in NHL history, and bringing the Oilers into Cologne is about as natural a marketing opportunity as the league could manufacture. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly called the games an “important step in our commitment to grow the game in Germany.”
The NHL is also partnering with FC Bayern Munich on initiatives involving youth outreach, fan engagement and original content in Germany.
NHL News Today: The Trade Market Is Quiet, but Several Major Stories Are Still Moving
While August rarely produces the volume of transactions we see around the NHL Draft or July 1, some of the most interesting NHL rumors right now involve players who haven’t been traded.
Morgan Rielly is one of them.
Rielly addressed his future after months of speculation surrounding Toronto’s blue line and indicated he expects to remain a Maple Leaf entering the 2026-27 season. That does not mathematically eliminate a future trade, especially in the NHL, but it represents a significant cooling of a storyline that looked much more plausible earlier in the summer.
My read is that Toronto would be making a mistake by forcing a Rielly trade merely to say it changed the defence. His value is much more interesting if the Maple Leafs can reduce his defensive burden and allow him to attack as a transition defenceman. If his play rebounds under a different deployment, Toronto’s options improve dramatically.
Detroit has a very different problem with Dylan Larkin.
Larkin requested a trade after the 2025-26 season, with Florida, Minnesota and Vegas initially identified as acceptable destinations and Dallas reportedly being added later. Yet no deal has materialized.
That delay makes sense to me. This isn’t a rental player whom Detroit simply needs to move before a deadline. Larkin possesses significant leverage over his destination, while the Red Wings need a return substantial enough to justify trading the face of their franchise.
Detroit also remains in a hockey-operations transition after Steve Yzerman moved out of the general manager role in July, making an already complicated Larkin decision even more significant.
Jonathan Huberdeau’s Contract Could Become One of the NHL’s Most Fascinating Trade Experiments
Jonathan Huberdeau may be the most interesting long-term trade case of all.
Daily Faceoff examined the possibility Thursday of Calgary eventually finding a way to trade Huberdeau, who still carries a $10.5 million annual cap hit with five seasons remaining. Huberdeau underwent hip resurfacing surgery after producing 25 points in 50 games last season and is expected to be ready for Flames training camp.
Right now, I don’t believe Calgary should attach premium assets simply to escape the contract.
The NHL salary cap is $104 million for 2026-27. That means Huberdeau currently consumes approximately 10.1% of the entire cap. But retention radically changes the calculation.
At 40 percent retained, for example, another team would carry only $6.3 million, or roughly 6.1% of today’s cap. At the maximum 50 percent retention, the acquiring club’s hit would fall to $5.25 million.
That does not make a trade imminent. It illustrates why waiting could actually increase Calgary’s options.
If Huberdeau returns to the 50-to-60-point range, proves the hip is healthy and Calgary eventually becomes willing to retain salary, today’s virtually immovable contract could look considerably different two years from now.
NHLTradeRumor.com Huberdeau Tradeability Model
The following is an original editorial model, not an NHL statistic. I am weighting the contract, remaining term, production, health uncertainty and Calgary’s ability to retain salary.
Current Tradeability Score: 41/100
The score reflects a player who would be extremely difficult to move today without significant salary retention, but who still possesses enough offensive history and potential rebound value to prevent the contract from being considered permanently untradeable.
The retention percentages above are my calculations using Huberdeau’s reported $10.5 million cap hit and the $104 million 2026-27 NHL cap. The tradeability score is proprietary editorial analysis rather than a league statistic.
What Today’s NHL News Is Really Telling Us
The common thread in today’s NHL news is patience.
Toronto appears prepared to see whether Rielly can rebound. Detroit has resisted making a Larkin trade simply because the player requested one. Calgary has no incentive to burn valuable futures purely to erase Huberdeau’s contract. Meanwhile, the NHL itself is playing a much longer game by putting Draisaitl and Peterka in front of hometown fans as it continues building its German market.
For me, Huberdeau is the storyline with the greatest potential to change. His contract looks almost impossible today, but NHL trade value can change rapidly when salary caps rise, contracts shorten and player performance rebounds.
That is precisely why August rumors matter. Most never produce an immediate trade — but they often identify the contracts and roster pressure points that become major stories once games begin.
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