How Many Deals Will Happen Come the NHL Draft
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM with Steve Kouleas and Andrew Raycroft and was asked about the expected level of activity during the NHL Draft.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Andrew Raycroft: “Dave, we kind of keep hearing through back channels, lots of deals. There’s lots of deals to be made. Do you agree with that? Are we going to see a lot of deals come Draft Day?”
Dave Pagnotta: “I’m very hopeful, because it’s going to really take some of the headlines that we need and more stuff to talk about. There’s a lot of activity. There’s a lot of talk going on right now, that much is clear.
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We know Utah is looking for a big power offensive, power forward to add to their top-six, and they’ve got the fourth overall pick in play. Chicago is looking for something similar within their top six. They want to add and insulate their young stars with veteran stars, veterans, sorry. Well, yes, younger veteran stars, and we’re starting to get where the third overall pick is in play.
Other teams that are looking at the free agent market and going, eh it’s a shallow pool, and we need to create our options here. A lot of those clubs are looking at the trade market as well.
The Montreal Canadiens being one of them. They’re looking at and they definitely want to improve their roster. But the Habs, and I was talking to a couple people in Montreal about this the other day, they’re going to look at some options free agency wise, but they’re also very active in the trade market as well. Not exclusive to a second-line center, but also looking to see what other options may be available to them in terms of improving their overall roster.
Leafs, another one, they’re looking around seeing what’s available. They want to free up a little bit of cap space as well. That’s why we’ve heard names like David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok that are out there as they look to see if there’s an option for them to free up money.
The New York Islanders, lots of heat surrounding Jean-Gabriel Pageau, in the final year of his time at $5 million. Lot of talks surrounding that. And, of course, the New York Rangers K’Andre Miller and some other options that they’re looking at.
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So there’s a lot of activity, a lot of discussion. If it gets there, I’d love to see a lot of these things get to the finish line. I’m not the one making the calls on them, but there certainly seems to be the potential for a lot of activity, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is a bit of a shallower free agent pool this summer than in previous years.”
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