Blue Jackets likely aren’t major buyers and won’t sell if there is still hope
Aaron Portzline: The Columbus Blue Jackets have 10 games before the April 12th trade deadline. Can’t see a scenario where the Blue Jackets become major deadline buyers. Can’t see them being sellers if the playoffs are still in sight.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: The Columbus Blue Jackets may not be interested in trading Nick Foligno.
Tortorella in Buffalo?
Sportsnet: If Columbus Blue Jackets don’t bring John Tortorella back (fired before the end of the season or they don’t re-sign him), would he be a potential candidate for the Buffalo Sabres?
“You have to find somebody who commands respect and knows how to get players to play for them,” Elliotte Freidman said on The FAN 590’s Lead Off last Friday. “The thing about Tortorella is really interesting. Everybody understands that this possibility could be there. If Tortorella is not back in Columbus he has an attachment to Buffalo.”
Friedman gets the sense that older players tend to like Tortorella more than young players. How young are the Sabres going to be next season, and are they going to have a team that could handle him?
Sabres haven’t asked Staal about his modified NTC
Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News: Buffalo Sabres Eric Staal is in Buffalo while his wife and three kids remain in Minnesota. Things haven’t been good in Buffalo this season.
Staal will likely be among the players traded at the deadline. Staal has a 10-team no-trade clause and Sabres GM Kevyn Adams hasn’t asked Staal about it.
“I think it’s focusing on what I can control,” Staal said after practice Tuesday. “Right now, it’s trying to do the right things every shift when I’m called upon. Obviously, the role I’ve been in here for the last little while has been a little bit different, and I need to find ways to play the game the right way consistently over and over and doing the right things, not cheating the game for plays.”