Rumor: Claude Giroux to play for Canadian team next season.

Could the next phase of former Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux's career begin in his home country of Canada? One National Hockey League insider is warning that you shouldn't rule out the possibility.

Earlier this week NHL insider Elliotte Friedman created quite a few waves when he revealed that Giroux was looking into the possibility of play in the province of Ontario next season. Friedman made a short but poignant statement during his 32 Thoughts blog.

From Friedman:

No guarantee it happens, but I do believe Claude Giroux is doing his research on Ottawa.

That wasn't much to go on at the time but since making that information public Friedman has been asked to share more details on the statement he made in his blog, and the insider has now happily obliged. During the most recent episode of his podcast Friedman revealed that Giroux, who is from the small town of Hearst, Ontario, was genuinely looking at the possibility of moving his career closer to home as his time in the NHL begins to wind down.

"I just don't think it's an option that's off the table," said Friedman during the 32 Thoughts podcast. "He's got a lot of ties to Ottawa, there's an expectation that is where he is going to potentially retire to when he's done, I think he's building a home there, there's a lot of tie ins."

Friedman would go on to clarify that he is by no means trying to claim that this is a done deal, but he would go on to state once again that he believes the possibility of Giroux playing closer to home next season cannot be ruled out.

"Now I don't think it's a guarantee, but I think it's on the radar," said Friedman. "I will say someone reached out to me after I wrote it and said 'He's been asking questions about it.' But he said that I wrote it right, that just because you ask doesn't mean it's going to happen, it means you're doing your homework."

Not only does Friedman appear to believe that Ottawa would be a good fit for Giroux himself, but it appears the insider believes Giroux could also fill a need for the Senators organization as well.

"I think the other thing too with Ottawa is they've got a lot of good young players, a lot of really good young players, and the one thing Ottawa is going to try to fix... is that who are the veterans that are gonna play around them? The idea of Giroux I think is pretty exciting for them."

At 34 years of age Giroux is currently in the midst of one of the least productive seasons of his NHL career, but no doubt a significant part of that can be attributed to the fact that the entire Flyers roster struggled this season. There's little doubt that his character and leadership qualities could be of tremendous benefit to a young team like the Ottawa Senators, and his addition could potentially even lead to a relationship between Giroux and the Senators organization if he were to retire in Ottawa as Friedman has hinted he could do.