Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane will have trade speculation follow him along this season leading up to the March 3rd trade deadline. He has a no-movement clause and holds the hammer. He’ll be in a similar situation to Claude Giroux last season, and they share the same agent in Pat Brisson.
“It’s very similar, yes,” Brisson told The Athletic this past weekend. “The respect that both players have for each organization. Claude will have his number in the rafters in Philly one day, I do believe, and obviously Patrick as well in Chicago. Both players are very respected on those teams. Claude at the beginning of last season wanted to see how things were going to go with the Flyers. We realized pretty soon, by November, that if he wanted a chance at trying to win a Cup last season, he would have to make a decision. And he picked Florida. The Panthers were one of the most attractive teams at the trade deadline.”
Kane and Brisson will see how things play out in Chicago this year, and the Blackhawks won’t push Kane into a decision. The sides will circle back in December or January to see where things are at. The Blackhawks continue to say any trade will be when and where Kane wants.
The return for Kane may not be huge as where he wants to go may only be a few teams and controls the situation.
If a third team was involved and retained salary in a Jonathan Toews trade, it could get his $10.5 million cap hit down to a much more manageable $2.625 million. It’s not known if Toews wants to move on.
The St. Louis Blues will meet with pending UFA Ryan O’Reilly in January.
Dylan Larkin’s agents will definitely be bringing up Mathew Barzal’s eight-year, $9.15 million per year contract extension when their talks get underway.
There haven’t been any contract extension talks as of this past weekend between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Michael Bunting. Mentioned on TSN’s Insider Trading last week about an eight-year extension at a reduced AAV might appeal to the Leafs. Would they be able to find an AAV that works for both sides?e