- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Rumblings continue with the Kings possibly moving Jack Johnson if they can up their offense with a first-line forward. Jonathan Bernier’s name is out there as well. Any deal for Nash would likely included both Johnson and Bernier. LeBrun thinks the Kings and Blue Jackets talked about Jeff Carter before the Nash thing broke. The Capitals have looked at Blue Jackets Antoine Vermette, among others. The Capitals are waiting to see how Nicklas Backstrom is closer to the deadline before they make a move. Senators GM Bryan Murray is not looking for a short-term fix and won’t part with any of their top prospects to bring in some offensive help. They’d like a top 6 but only if the price is right.
- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings will look to add 1 or 2 veterans for their Cup run. Teemu Selanne would be ideal but he’s focused on getting the Ducks in. Rick Nash would be expensive. Tuomo Ruutu is out 3 weeks and the Hurricanes want to re-sign him. Ryan Smyth has said he wants to stay in Edmonton and Ales Hemsky isn’t gritty and is injury prone.
- Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: To bring in Rick Nash, it may take Jake Gardiner, a 1st round pick, one of Joe Colborne or Nazem Kadri and maybe one of Clarke MacArthur or Nikolai Kulemin. If it isn’t Nash, the Leafs could use a forward. Koshan lists some players who the Maple Leafs might be interested in: James van Riemsdyk. Jeff Carter, Evgeni Nabokov, Nikolai Khabibulin, Ales Hemsky, Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Malone, Dustin Penner, Brenden Morrow, Mike Knuble, and Alex Ovechkin.
- Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province: Canucks Cory Schneider tries to take all trade rumors in stride:
“It’s hard to avoid it, it’s always on somewhere,” said Schneider. “We tend to ignore most of the speculation but it’s interesting to see who is going to strengthen themselves — a contender or a team we’re directly competing against with a guy like Rick Nash. That obviously has implications on us. We don’t follow it obsessively or believe every rumour we hear, but guys keep an eye out and see if we’re going to be active.
“For me, I just don’t think about it. I’ve got a job to do here and if I don’t do it, that probably eliminates possibilities of anything ever happening anyways. I enjoy it here. I’m not looking to get moved and I’m not asking for a trade by any means. If it’s a hockey decision, then it’s out of my control.”
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: (mailbag) Heika thinks the Stars have to shop Mike Ribeiro and Steve Ott to see what interest there is. They can’t just give them away, but if you can get a good return for them, it might be something to do. If they could get a good offer for goalie prospect Jack Campbell, they could move him.