Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Don’t Debug the EBUG, on Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Bjugstad and one team that is interested.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “You reported Saturday about Nick Bjugstad and the Edmonton Oilers. I had mentioned something about Carson Soucy after you as well, defenseman for the Seattle Kraken. And I think a lot of people are wondering, again, and this is a big if, if Seattle decides to do something with him. There’s a number of teams that would be looking at Carson Soucy.
Before I get your thoughts on him, your thoughts on Nick Bjugstad and Edmonton and potentially elsewhere?”
Friedman: “I think the Oilers like Bjugstad and after I said that on Saturday night, someone called me on Sunday and they said to me, they think it’s more than interest. They think there have been some pretty detailed conversations between the two teams.
As I mentioned on Saturday night, you break down Bjugstad’s performance this year, he’s got 11 goals, 10 are even strength, one is short-handed. And someone brought up the point to me that he scores in the shootout and the shootout has no basis in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter, but you ignore it your peril to not get there. And the league leader has four, he’s got three. He’s a $900K number that anyone can handle.
As a matter of fact, the same person said to me, they wouldn’t be surprised if not only is Bjugstad on the Oilers radar, but so is one of his teammates. The currently injured Shayne Gostisbehere.
So, I don’t know where this is going to go because like I said, I think there is other interest in him. I don’t think Arizona’s going to have any trouble moving him if that’s what they decide to do. But I do think Edmonton is one of the teams there, and I think they’ve talked reasonably seriously about it.