Rumblings of a player for player deal between the Ducks and Hurricanes.

Over the last several days we have heard plenty of talking regarding a potential trade between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Anaheim Ducks, but now more than ever that talk seems to have been very much legitimate. 

Anaheim Ducks insider Eric Stephens of The Athletic had a chance to catch up with Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray recently and he was able to ask the veteran GM about those very same rumors. I am of course referring to the rumblings of a potential trade between the Hurricanes and Ducks, a trade that would see veteran defenseman Justin Faulk traded for talented Ducks winger Ondrej Kase. According to the report from Stephens, Murray did not so much as make an attempt to refute the rumors.

If you buy into what has been said on the rumor mill, it sounds like Faulk has agreed to waive his trade protection for the Ducks permitted the two sides can agree to a contract extension. It sounds like there have been some difficulties in that regard however, something that would seem obvious due to the fact that the trade has not been made, which raises the question of how the rumor got out in the first place if there's no deal here?

Well it sounds like Bob Murray may have some thoughts on that as well. Although the veteran GM did not name anyone directly, he did hint at the fact that a certain owner may have been behind the leak.

“It happens to all of us,” Murray said as per The Athletic. “It happened in my career. As a player, this is the life we live. If you’re going to be a professional athlete, things are going to happen. Your name’s going to go out there. That is part one of that. That’s something we live with and have to — you just got to move on. Whether it’s out there or not.

“The second part of that, which is the disturbing part for me, is when things are out there — when things haven’t happened and some owner or whatever decides he’s going to garner some friendship with media and he’s going to get close to the media. He puts things out there … some of these people, I wish they were players at one point in their life. Obviously, they weren’t.”

Unless Murray is throwing his own ownership under the bus it would seem very likely that these comments were directed at Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. Although any conflict between the two might seem to have left this trade dead in the water, the fact that the Hurricanes added defenseman Jake Gardiner during the offseason suggests to me that they are still very much keen on trading Faulk.