On the Colorado Avalanche, Anahiem Ducks, Tampa Bay Lightning, the Goalie Market and a potentially busy June …
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Mid-June through the start of free agency is looking to be really busy with the two drafts, free agency, and a flat salary cap. Looking at some potential trades for the offseason.
More teams will be able to be involved this offseason for the Colorado Avalanche’s forward Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. thinks GM Joe Sakic made the right move by not trading them at the deadline as more teams can now bid for them.
The Anaheim Ducks will likely lose someone from his blueline in the expansion draft. The Ducks need to convince Kevin Bieksa to waive his no-movement clause, which shouldn’t be a problem. The Ducks need to figure out if they have a shot are re-signing Cam Flower as his contract expires after next season. He’ll be re-signed (after July 1st) or traded. If they choose to protect four defenesmen – Flower, Sami Vatanen, Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson – they’d have to leave Jakob Silfverberg exposed, which they may not want to do. Maybe the Ducks protect 7-3-1 instead of 4-4-1 and make a deal with Vegas to not select someone. If the Ducks look to trade one of their defensemen, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames would be among the interested teams.
The Lightning will look to acquire a top-four defenseman this offseason, and it might cost them a top-six forward. Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat need new deals. Teams will ask about Drouin, but think they’d prefer to keep him and move someone else.
Marc-Andre Fleury and Jaroslav Halak could be traded this offseason. The Detroit Red Wings could look to trade Jimmy Howard or Petr Mrazek. Would the Avalanche look to trade Semyon Varlamov and his $5.9 million cap hit? There is a also a fairly big list of pending UFA goaltenders. The Flames, Jets, Stars and Flyers that could be looking for a No. 1 goalie. Vegas will be selecting three goalies and could select from Antti Raanta, Philipp Grubauer and Michal Neuvirth.
