On the Edmonton Oilers …
Paul Almeida: A reliable source said that the Oilers are talking with free agent defenseman Kris Russell about a short-term contract.
Dustin Nielson: The Oilers reached out to free agent defenseman a couple days ago. The two sides are talking about numbers and term, and a deal could be done soon. It doesn’t mean that a deal will get done for sure, but talks are going on.
On the Montreal Canadiens …
HabsLinks: (translating from a journalddemontreal article) Evgenii Dadonov said that his agent did speak with the Canadiens. Vadim Shipachyov said he didn’t know which NHL teams were interested in signing him.
Bergevin fielding offers on @natebeaulieu according to @GagnonFrancois pic.twitter.com/nlzpl2O7Sk
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) September 16, 2016
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 talking about Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin‘s comments that he’s been getting calls on defenseman Nathan Beaulieu. Could the Canadiens put Beaulieu in a package to acquire a No. 2 defenseman and if there are are No. 2 defenseman available.
“I don’t know that there’s any No. 2 defensemen that are on the market at this point in time,” began McKenzie. “If you’re going to go and get a top-pairing defenseman, it’s not very often that kind of trade goes down before training camp begins, or even during training camp.
“I think I’ve mentioned this on the morning show last spring that I wouldn’t be surprised – and you’ve got to be careful what you say here – I’m not saying Bergevin is shopping him or is going to trade him; but if Beaulieu got traded, I’m not sure I’d be all that surprised.”
…
“And I forgot to mention Emelin in there. That’s a guy for me that they’d ultimately like to move at some point because they do want to get more puck-movers, and they really want somebody who’s more consistent than Emelin is too.”