According to The Sun Sentinel, Nathan Horton’s agent said Wednesday he believes “there’s a very good chance” the Panthers right winger will be traded before or at the draft next weekend in Los Angeles.
“It would not surprise me at all if he’s dealt by the draft,” Horton’s agent Paul Krepelka said, adding that Horton’s aware of the possibility. “If it happens, it happens.”
Krepelka said he spoke with Panthers General Manager Dale Tallon after Tallon’s hiring and noted, “he likes Nathan as a player, but no one’s untouchable.”
Horton has three years left on a deal that’s worth a cap hit of $4M per year and he has a no-trade clause that kicks in July 1st. The article notes the Sabres have serious interest in Horton and could in return give the Panthers the top-two centre Tallon desires in Derek Roy or Tim Connolly.
Tallon said at his introductory news conference he thought Horton had a good 2009-10 season.
“Before he broke his leg, he was really playing well,” Tallon said. “I think he’s maturing. He’s at the age now where he can take off and take it to another level. And that’s what I’m expecting from him.”
Horton had 20-37-57 in 65 GP last season and although he really seems to be more comfortable at RW, he’s also capable of playing centre. Poolies in particular love that versatility with his dual eligibility. Had he not been hurt last season, he likely would have passed his prior career high of 62 points. The former third overall pick from 2003 has reached that plateau in back-to-back seasons in ’06-7 and ’07-8, playing in all 82 games each time.
For what it’s worth… the Panthers could also fill that void down the middle by keeping Horton and bringing back UFA-to-be Olli Jokinen, who has never enjoyed the success he did in Florida since leaving. Jokinen’s next deal should be dirt cheap compared with what he had been making because of his huge drop in production.
BRODEUR STAYING PUT, THANKS
File this one in the “duh” category, but Martin Brodeur is not going anywhere. The Star Ledger asked New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello about rumours involving the possibility of trading the legendary goaltender – who also has a no-trade clause. The GM emphatically denied that there have been any discussions by management about that possibility.
SELANNE NOT DONE?
The Orange County Register reports that according to the daily Turun Sanomat in Finland, veteran winger Teemu Selanne reportedly said that it’s likely that he’ll come back to the Ducks for another season “if Anaheim decides that it still wants to win next season and if it wants to keep the team more or less the same.”
Translation: If Scott Niedermayer says he’s in and you bring back Saku Koivu, then pencil me in. If they’re not back and the rebuilding phase is on, then I’m heading off into the sunset in my Ferrari Enzo.
In that same report, Selanne was quoted as saying that the soon-to-be-unsigned Koivu “is in a situation where he wants to continue to play in a winning team.”
A Ducks spokesman did say Wednesday that GM Bob Murray has had conversations with both Niedermayer and Selanne recently. It is very likely that decisions from the two future Hall of Fame players will come next week as has long been expected.
Both players should still be effective fantasy threats again for ’10-11, despite their advancing ages. We just covered Nieds’ season recently with his 48-point effort, which ended on a really strong note. He remains a PP1 option when he plays with as many minutes in general as he can handle. Selanne had 27-21-48 in 54 GP and he still racks up more than enough PPP and SOG to make him a valuable enough winger in virtually any format. He spent most of last season on L2 alongside Koivu.
BOSTON KEEPING THE SECOND PICK
The Boston Globe indicates that GM Peter Chiarelli acknowledged that among the offers he’s been made for the No. 2 pick in next week’s draft, he said he was impressed with one pitch. But even as good as that offer was, Chiarelli is standing firm that he will take either Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin with the second overall pick.
“I’m not moving it,” Chiarelli said of the No. 2 position. “We’re going to take one of those two forwards.”
QUOTABLE
Leafs GM Brian Burke ahead of the World Hockey Summit slated for late August in Toronto, on the subject of the difficulties of NHL expansion into Europe: “First of all, there’s the economics of having an NHL team in Europe. Most of the buildings in Europe do not generate NHL economics. They don’t have the seating capacity or the premium seating capacity or the big-ticket item capacity,” Burke told The Sun.
“Secondly, there’s the travel. (You go there) and you need four teams. Now, you need four buildings that generate NHL economics.
“Even if all those things could be mastered, what does it do to the Swedish Elite League? If it puts them out of business, why are we even talking about it? We should be talking about a way to make that league stronger.”
BERTUZZI RE-SIGNS
Michigan Live notes the Detroit Red Wings believed it would have cost more to replace Todd Bertuzzi in the free-agent market than to re-sign him. So they’re happy he agreed Wednesday to a two-year contract for just under $4M and they still value his size, strength and net-front ability.
“He does a few things for us,” GM Ken Holland said. “He’s a big body (6-3, 225), he’s hard to knock off the puck in the offensive zone.
“He’s worked on his physical conditioning. He’s made a conscious effort to become a net-front presence. We got scoring chances because he’s in front of the net drawing attention.”
As we’ve covered recently, Bertuzzi remains a decent depth option on the wing in standard leagues because he’s virtually guaranteed a top six role and he chips in enough PIM to complement his mid-level point totals. He’s not really a consistent offensive producer anymore, but he’ll be especially helpful during periods when his line is hot.
“I think he’s found a home here,” Holland said. “He’s adjusted to our system and fit into our locker room.”
Michigan Live also says that as expected, the Wings won’t have much to spend when free agency begins on July 1.
“We’re not going to be players on July 1, 2 or 3,” Holland said. “Later this summer we might explore some pieces.”
It will be a quiet summer, as most of their pieces are in place.
“I believe we’re a better team heading into 2010-11 than we were heading into 2009-10, with the addition of (Jiri) Hudler, and if we get better luck with injuries,” Holland said. “We got potential for a lot of growth on our team.”
BOOGAARD’S CONTRACT TALKS
The Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that Derek Boogaard, the Wild’s 6-8 enforcer, remains unsigned two weeks prior to free agency. And, although General Manager Chuck Fletcher says he’s had “regular conversations going back three months” with Boogaard’s agent, Ron Salcer, Fletcher has indicated that he’s unlikely to re-sign Boogaard prior to July 1.
“We haven’t closed the book either, and maybe we revisit it July 1 or 2 if we don’t [re-sign him before],” Fletcher said. “But we have several areas we’re looking to improve. It comes down to, ‘How much cap space can you allocate to a certain area without compromising other areas?'”
Fletcher has been entrenched in trade talks heading into next weekend’s draft in Los Angeles. He wants to maintain salary-cap flexibility so it doesn’t inhibit any roster moves via trade or free agency.
“I respect Derek Boogaard and think he’s probably the most feared enforcer in the game,” Fletcher said. “But once you allocate those cap dollars, you don’t have them anymore. So if it doesn’t work out, it’s not because we don’t value him. There’s a finite amount of money we can spend to improve our team.”
The 27-year old Saskatchewan native is good for specific fight match-ups each season, but in general there will almost always be a better PIM option via free agency in your league.
The MST also reports that RFA-to-be James Sheppard has been signed to a one-year, $803,250 deal. It was a question this offseason whether the Wild would even tender Sheppard a qualifying offer after the 22-year-old floundered instead of flourished (two goals, six points, 64 games) in Richards’ up-tempo system last year.
“I’m looking for James to come back with more urgency and to make a bigger investment in his career,” Fletcher said. “He’s a young player. It’s easy to write off young players, but in our situation, why would we? … He’s not going to be given anything. But by the same token, we’re not going to walk away from him at this stage. The organization’s put four years into him and why not put a fifth?”
The article says the Wild tendered qualifying offers to restricted free agents Guillaume Latendresse, Josh Harding, Anton Khudobin, Nate Prosser and Matt Kassian. Morten Madsen and Jamie Fraser were let go.
EXTENDED QUOTABLE
The Tampa Tribune did an interview with new GM Steve Yzerman this week which included several noteworthy quotes.
On Martin St. Louis entering the final year of his contract and possibly signing an extension: “There are a lot of reasons other than his production that I would like to keep him in the organization and keep him on the team. But he’s at a stage in his career, he’s turning 35, he wants win, and he wants to negotiate a contract that he feels good about. I respect all of that, and it makes perfect sense. And I believe that in every contract negotiation you’ve got to find a solution that makes sense to both sides. I’m hopeful that we can do that. He’s a first-class guy, he deserves to be treated with utmost respect and I’ll do that. Where it ends up, we’ll see. They want to make a deal that makes sense for them and I have to make a deal that makes sense for us. So we have some time to get it done, but it’s a definite priority for me.”
On Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman likely needing long-term contracts in the next year or two and whether any other current long-term deals might need to be moved to make it happen: “You have to plan long term, there is no way around that. So you have to look at what your commitments are and it can definitely impact what we do. We don’t have to deal with it today. Every issue and every situation is going to take some time. We’ll sign our players we need to sign now, plan accordingly with what we have and then just keep working through the process. But every long-term deal we do I have to keep in mind our commitments and what’s coming up in the future.”
On the possibility of using the No. 6 overall pick as a trade chip: “I won’t say no and we don’t have anything in the works right now. We’ve talked about the possibilities. I want to keep as many picks as possible. I think we just need to build up depth in our prospects, we need young players coming, so very remote that we move it.”
On how active Yzerman may be on July 1 when free agency begins: “As much as I would love to have a splash on July 1, I don’t want to sign a player just so we can have a press conference, it has to make sense. That’s the discipline we have to have. And frankly we’ve got some things within our own club that we have to take care of, like contracts and other things moving forward that we really need to focus in on and then slowly build around that.”