On the Nashville Predators …
Adam Vingan: Predators GM David Poile on ESPN 102.5 The Game radio last week on the process of signing RFA Filip Forsberg to a contract extension.
“We all have comparables that go by points and age and games played and any other criteria that we find. You’re going to always gravitate to someone that has the highest salary and we’ve just got to get as many names that are applicable out there. There’s also a lot of young kids that are similar to Filip in terms of where they are in their career that need to be signed this year, so that could make this a longer, drawn out process until some of these other guys get signed. The good news is that he wants to stay here. Hopefully we can work out a contract that is, in my mind, for a few years rather than a shorter-term contract.”
Adam Vingan: RFAs that Poile could have been referring too: Mike Hoffman, Jaden Schwartz, Andrew Shaw, Chris Kreider, and definitely Johnny Gaudreau.
On the Vancouver Canucks …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 1040 on the how active he thinks the Vancouver Canucks will be this offseason following the Erik Gudbranson–Jared McCann trade.
“I think they’ll be active. Just do the math.”
…
“So that kind of philosophy suggests to you they want to get better quicker. And not crazily to the point where – when you talk about a 24-year-old defenseman like Erik Gudbranson, he’s not old. they’re not running out and grabbing a 30-year-old at the expense of a youth movement. They still believe that they’ve got a youth movement going on here, but it would suggest to me that there might be a little accelerated timeline here, and that if the opportunity exists to get other players that are in that age bracket, to give up younger players, that that might be something that they would consider doing.
“So I would suspect they’ll want to continue to be active, and continue to build their blueline, and try and find some insulation beyond the Sedins up front, and obviously that brass can move forward some of that with the pick that they got.”