Rival NHL owner accuses Rangers of tampering on Monday.

An owner in the National Hockey League has just leveled some serious accusations against the New York Rangers.

On Monday, NHL insider Pierre LeBrun sat down to have a conversation with Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer and it was during that conversation that LeBrun says Andlauer accused the Rangers of tampering with his team on more than one occasion.

"Michael Andlauer did not hold back in his frustration and anger," said LeBrun as per TSN. "He called it 'soft tampering' twice during this interview as far as what he considers something that the league should be cracking down on."

Andlauer's frustration stems from a report from New York Rangers insider Larry Brooks that went out last week, one that linked Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk to a potential blockbuster trade deal with the Rangers. I covered that story last week but, according to Andlauer, there was never any truth to that report and clearly he feels the Rangers played a role in putting that information out there.

"Michael Andlauer made it clear to me that the Senators have not spoken to one single team in the National Hockey League about Brady Tkachuk at any time," said LeBrun. "He is their captain and he's gonna be their captain long term according to Michael Andlauer."

The New York Rangers have an outspoken owner of their own in the form of James Dolan, who has never been afraid to speak his mind publicly, and it will be very interesting to see how the Rangers respond to what are some rather serious accusations from the Ottawa Senators.

Just last week the NHL put out a memo across the league that informed teams that there would be extremely severe penalties for tampering moving forward, and it seems clear to me based on the language used by Andlauer that he feels the Rangers should face some of those consequences for their actions when it comes to spreading rumors regarding the captain of the Ottawa Senators.

Stay tuned for more on what is a quickly developing story.