On the St. Louis Blues …
Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Blues forward Jori Lehtera has two years left on his deal at a $4.7 million salary cap hit.
Lehtera might be the type of player that the Blues offer up an asset to the Vegas Golden Knights to select him in the expansion draft.
Would the Blues offer up one of their first round picks (No. 20 or No. 27) to Vegas? The Blues also have some defensive prospects that might interest the GM George McPhee.
The Blues may be interested in shedding Lehtera’s cap hit to create some financial flexibility to sign RFA Colton Parayko to a long-term contract.
On the Toronto Maple Leafs …
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: There is some talk that Maple Leafs should offer sheet Blues defenseman Colton Parayko as the Leafs could use a young, right-handed defenseman.
The Maple Leafs should do this as “they rarely work” and if they did the Blues would likely try to offer sheet William Nylander next year or in two years Auston Matthews or Mitch Marner.
On the Dallas Stars …
Scott Burnside of DallasStars.com: (from Friday) Stars GM Jim Nill is getting calls on their No. 3 pick. They are in need of some help on the blueline and could use the pick at trade bait. The Stars also have Anaheim’s No. 29 pick.
There are teams like the Anahiem Ducks and Minnesota Wild that may be willing to trade a defenseman for expansion and salary cap reasons.
The Wild have Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba that could be made available.
The Ducks have young Dmen in Shea Theodore, Brandon Montour and Josh Manson. They want to re-sign Cam Fowler, and though both are out with shoulder injuries, Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm are locked up long-term. They likely can’t afford to keep everyone around long-term.
If the Stars keep the No. 3 pick center options include Gabriel Vilardi, Michael Rasmussen, Casey Mittelstadt and Martin Necas.
Options on defense include Miro Heiskanen or Cale Makar.