On the New Jersey Devils …
- Gary Lawless: The Devils have made Lee Stempniak, Jordin Tootoo, Tyler Kennedy and David Schlemko available.
- Gary Lawless: The Devils are telling teams that defenseman Eric Gelinas is available.
- Travis Yost: Asking price for Stempniak is a 2nd round pick, but could be negotiable if it’s packaged with mid-rounders.
- Tom Gulitti: Lee Stempniak: “Whatever Ray and the management group decides is going to happen, but I like New Jersey, I want to stay in New Jersey ….”
- Tom Gulitti: Lee Stempniak said that his agent and the Devils held preliminary talks about a contract extension, but nothing done.
- Tom Gulitti: Lee Stempniak and David Schlemko said that they haven’t heard anything from management about the deadline
- Dennis Bernstein: The Devils will be sellers tomorrow, and will be outsiders on Jonathan Drouin.
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: Stempniak and Schlemko haven’t heard anything about a possible trade.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Schlemko said. “I know just as much as you do.”
“I haven’t heard anything and I’m just trying to focus on things I can control,” Stempniak said.
Stempniak would like to stay. They were “preliminary discussions” “but no negotiations” between his agent Bob Murray and GM Ray Shero.
There is also the possibility of Stempniak coming back next year even if he was traded by tomorrow.
“You never know,” he said. “I like it here. I think it’s been a good fit. I think it could continue to be a good fit, but there’s a lot of things up in the air, a lot of things that go into a decision like that and a lot of it is on Ray and the Devils’ behalf. So, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
The Predators have scouted the Devils several times in the past couple weeks and could have interest in Stempniak.
The Devils have shown interest in Jonathan Drouin. The Lightning are looking for a right-handed defenseman. The Devils have Adam Larsson and Damon Severson. The Lightning could also be looking for a high draft pick and/or a significant prospect.
There are some reports that the Devils could be interested in Panthers Brandon Pirri.