Coyotes to explore everything
Adam Kimelman of NHL.com: Q & A with Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka.
When asked on how active he plans on being in the free agent and trade market.
“It’s my nature to explore everything, every avenue, in terms of what we feel really adds value to the group. I’m not going to pursue things that are redundant or create negative value. I’ve looked at everything, namely the trade route at this stage, and we know about the free agent pool potentially and we’ll see where that gets to as we evolve through the offseason. But I can’t say there’s one area or another that we’ll be shopping in.”
Chayka says they need to score more goals.
The Blackhawks roster is full but Bowman isn’t concerned
Mark Lazerus of The Athletic: It will be a different offseason for Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman as they have some salary cap space to work with – possibly $15 to $17 million.
The Blackhawks should be active in the trade market, and Bowman said they could look at making a big splash in free agency.
Their roster for next season is basically full, so they could look to move out a body or two.
“That’s not a concern of mine,” Bowman said. “I would rather have an over-full roster and then try to sort through it in training camp. We may have a lot of guys signed now, but some of them might be traded. Or if they don’t (get traded), and we add free agents, we’ll have to figure out the guys that are the right mix and then pare it down later. The focus is not trying to set your roster in June, when you don’t have to really set it until October. I think those things have a way of working themselves out. I’d rather have an over-full roster, and if we make some signings or if we make some trades, there’s certainly some players we could move out in trade discussions.”
They could look to find a top-four defenseman, maybe Winnipeg Jets RFA defenseman Jacob Trouba.
Brandon Saad or Artem Anisimov could be trade chips.