It’s happening.
As we saw Monday, actual trade action is heating up across the NHL. The Maple Leafs landed themselves a new No. 1 goaltender, Steve Yzerman wants clarity from Steven Stamkos and the Nashville Predators and New York Rangers wisely salvaged something for soon-to-be free agents they knew they couldn’t sign.
The seal has been broken. So… who’s next to get moved?
One last vacancy for a No. 1 goalie
Brad Treliving is a patient and methodical man, isn’t he?
The Calgary Flames waited the longest after being eliminated this season to fire their head coach and were the last club to hire a new one.
With the Hurricanes re-signing Cam Ward and the Leafs trading for Frederik Andersen, now the Flames are the last team standing without a No. 1 goaltender.
Free agents James Reimer and Ilya Bryzgalov are out there. The Stars and Red Wings would likely be happy to trade Calgary one of their overpaid veterans. Perhaps a deal could be struck for one of the Flyers or Islanders netminders.
Tampa’s Ben Bishop and St. Louis’s Brian Elliott are about to enter contract years. Trade for one of those proven commodities, however, and you better be prepared to pay a high price and be confident you can extend him.
So the most qualified and most obvious candidate is Marc-Andre Fleury, a two-time Stanley Cup champion.
What will he cost?
Well, Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun reports that Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is asking for the Flames’ first-round draft pick. Sixth overall.
It’s definitely a buyer’s market for No. 1 goalies, and surely Treliving can wait for Rutherford to sweeten the deal.
Pressure on Buffalo to convince Vesey
After college star Jimmy Vesey let it be known he had no interest in signing with Nashville, Toronto and Boston were reported to be the forward’s most likely landing spots when he becomes a free agent Aug. 15.
So good on Preds general manager David Poile for getting a third-round pick from Sabres GM Tim Murray for Vesey’s negotiating rights Monday.
Sounds like it’ll be a tough to convince the kid to sign before he hits the open market.
“In our opinion, the only thing that has happened is now the Sabres have stepped into the shoes of Nashville for exclusive rights [to negotiate] until Aug. 15,” Peter Donatelli, who represents Vesey, told ESPN’s Joe McDonald. “However, at this time, it doesn’t change Jimmy Vesey’s intention to become a free agent on Aug. 15.”
The hopeful news for Sabres fans? Donatelli is also one of Jack Eichel’s agents.
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Ducks ain’t done dealing
Now that GM Bob Murray has rid himself of a 1A/1B situation in net, scooping a couple of draft picks in the process, Anaheim will be seeking clarity on its blue line.
After the Ducks re-signed RFA Sami Vatanen on the weekend, Murray spoke about his wealth of young blue liners and the possibility that one could be shipped out for a forward.
“A high-quality left winger, if possible,” Murray told the O.C. Register. “With the budget I have and what we have to do, I might have to move some parts around right now.”
RFA Hampus Lindholm is without a contract for next season, but it’s versatile 24-year-old Cam Fowler — signed for two more seasons at $4 million each — whose name is getting tossed around this week.
Loui Eriksson (UFA), James van Riemsdyk, Rick Nash and Taylor Hall have been suggested as fits for Anaheim.
Keep an eye on @AnaheimDucks potentially moving one of their good young D. Plenty of market interest esp on Fowler. @NHL @NHLNetwork
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) June 21, 2016
Oilers trade chatter resurfaces
Talk of the Edmonton Oilers dealing one of their young forwards bubbled around the trade deadline. Never happened. So here we are again.
Taylor Hall won another World Championship gold with Team Canada in May, and his name keeps popping up.
The ESPN report that the Oilers have joined the Bruins on the hunt for St. Louis’ Kevin Shattenkirk, whom GM Doug Armstrong has certainly made available, makes sense.
And although the Islanders want to add a scoring winger to replace the departing Kyle Okposo, we’d be surprised to see Travis Hamonic moved now that he’s receinded his trade request.
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Radulov waiting in the wings for the Wings?
It would appear that Russian UFA Alex Radulov, who went deep in talks with the Detroit Red Wings, is waiting for Ken Holland to free up salary cap space.
If Holland cannot find a trade partner for Pavel Datsyuk’s $7.5-million cap hit or No. 2 goalie Jimmy Howard, Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News suggests dangling defenceman Brendan Smith or a forward like Gustav Nyquist or Tomas Tatar to land one of this summer’s premium talents.
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Expect a quiet summer in San Jose
While we see the Sharks facing some huge decisions as Doug Wilson’s bunch nears the summer of 2017, the Western Conference champs won’t tinker too much over the next few weeks.
The core will remain in tact.
“The majority of our team, I think, is in place,” Wilson said during a conference call Monday.
“That’s probably going to be the foundation of our team. We always look at ways to improve our hockey team, so I can’t say definitively that we’re not going to add some pieces because we have the ability to do that and some cap space and really good assets. But we encourage our young guys to knock on the door and come in and play and make this hockey team much like [Joonas] Donskoi and [Melker] Karlsson did.”
The Sharks’ soon-to-be unrestricted free agents — Reimer, Roman Polak, Nick Spaling, Dainius Zubrus and Matt Tennyson — could all test the open market and be replaced at a reasonable rate.
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Blue Jackets keeping No. 3, then?
