On the Colorado Avalanche …
Jeff Cox: NHL sources are saying that the 2017 first-round pick Cale Makar is leaning to remaining at UMass for his sophomore season.
Jesse Montano: (going off the above Makar report) “To everyone saying to trade Barrie because of what’s coming. Obviously, there’s a chance he leaves NCAA, but you can’t trade assets until you know what you’ve got, or even if you’ve got it.”
On the Ottawa Senators and Erik Karlsson …
Larry Brooks of the NY Post: We have been told that the main reason why Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson wasn’t traded at the deadline was that he/agents wouldn’t talk about an extension with interested teams. The CBA states he can’t negotiate a new contract before July 1st since he’s not a free agent until after next season.
“Unless, of course, the league had granted Ottawa/Karlsson a singular exemption to yet another asinine clause in the labor agreement that is meant to hamstring teams.” That would have been something the Rangers may have liked to do when discussing Ryan McDonagh trade options.
On the Edmonton Oilers …
Allan Mitchell of The Athletic: The Edmonton Oilers need to add talent this offseason and not subtract from it. They need to find a scoring winger for Connor McDavid.
Even though McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have played well together, they need to be on different lines. They also shouldn’t play Jesse Puljujarvi with McDavid to pad his stats and then have to pay him another “Leon Draisaitl second contract.”
Internal options could be Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Anton Slepyshev (if re-signed) and Kailer Yamamoto.
Trading for AHL options. Pittsburgh’s Daniel Sprong likely isn’t available. Winnipeg’s Brendan Lemieux, Calgary’s Andrew Mangiapane, and Arizona’s Nick Merkley could be other options.
Trading for bigger named NHL options could cost them Oscar Klefbom, Nugent-Hopkins, 2018 first-round pick or Puljujarvi. The likes of Brendan Gallagher or Jeff Skinner could more than one piece. Rick Nash could be a free agent option.
Reasonably priced NHL trade options could include Detroit’s Andreas Athanasiou, Calgary’s Sam Bennett, and Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman.
The Oilers should have signed Thomas Vanek last offseason and could look at signing him this year.