On the Arizona Coyotes and Toronto Maple Leafs …
Craig Custance of ESPN: (from last week) Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello on the Leafs not saying who they will take with the first overall pick.
“There’s plenty of time between now and the draft. There are a lot of variables that go into anything,” Lamoriello said. “I don’t think there’s any good that comes out of . There are so many extenuating circumstances that could take place over the month or so period of time.”
Custance notes that the first overall pick is more valuable to the Coyotes than it is to the Maple Leafs. It would have been better for the Coyotes for the Oilers to win the lottery as opposed to the Maple Leafs as they may have been more open to trading the pick. The Oilers are entertaining offers for their No. 4 pick.
If the Maple Leafs were to trade the first overall pick, it would have to be for a huge offer.
“You’d have to blow them away to get the No. 1 pick,” one NHL executive said Wednesday. “There’s an emotional attachment. It’s hard to trade that pick, ever.”
That executive went on to say that every team should at least call the Leafs to see what the price is.
The Coyotes have said they are not trading Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the first overall pick. Coyotes GM John Chayka does have two first round picks this year – their pick at No. 7 and the Rangers – and young players like Max Domi, Dylan Strome, Christian Dvorak and Christian Fischer.
Custance wonders if an offer of Strome, Dvorak, Fischer and both first round picks could get a deal done?
On the Philadelphia Flyers …
Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Daily News: Forward R.J. Umberger expects the Flyers to buy him out this offseason. He carries a $4.6 million cap hit and a buyout would save them $3 million off their cap next season.
“I know I can play a third-line role,” Umberger, 34, said when the Flyers cleared out their lockers last month. “I know I can play a fourth-line role if a team wants me to do that. I know I can do it. No problem. I can accept it.”
Umberger has only registered 26 points in two seasons with the Flyers since coming over from Columbus for Scott Hartnell.