On the Arizona Coyotes …
Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic: The Coyotes added five more draft picks at the trade deadline. Scouts like having more picks, but the Coyotes director of amateur scouting Tim Bernhardt knows he may not have all of them come draft time.
“They could move at any time between now and the draft,” Bernhardt said. “It’s just good to know but on the other hand, we’re always prepared if anything happens when they move.”
Coyotes GM John Chayka said that half his trade talks at the deadline this year revolved around the expansion draft. The Coyotes could use their picks to land established players from teams who may lose players in the draft.
“(Draft picks are) protected, exempt assets essentially,” Chayka said. “At an expansion draft, if they’re just trading an existing player for an existing player and they’re both non-exempt, that doesn’t really accomplish anything, whereas if you trade an existing player for picks that are then protected or future value picks, then that gets them around some of their issues. So that’s kind of the asset and why it’s valuable.”
On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: GM Steve Yzerman was able to create some cap space for this season by trading Ben Bishop and Brian Boyle – to help cover bonuses for Jonathan Drouin, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brayden Point – and for next season by moving out Valitteri Filppula and his $5 million contract.
The Lightning have pending RFAs in Drouin, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat to sign, and roughly $18 million in cap space. Yzerman on if they’ll have enough room to re-sign the three.
“It depends on the type of contracts that we sign,” Yzerman said. “The terms of their contracts that will affect the cap number.”
They will also need sign a backup goalie and still need another top-four defenseman.
It shouldn’t be a surprise if they trade one of Drouin, Johnson or Palat in a package for a top-four defenseman.
thinks that the Lightning and Nashville Predators could circle back to each other before the draft. The teams heavily scouted each other before the deadline.