On the Calgary Flames …
Eric Francis: Wonder if Ryan Miller would be on a short list of potential goaltenders the Flames could look at signing this offseason.
On the Montreal Canadiens …
The Fourth Period: The Montreal Canadiens are trying to create some extra salary cap space by trading center David Desharnais.
The Canadiens have been looking for a top-six forward, idealy a center, and a second pairing defenseman. The Canadiens don’t have a lot of salary cap space.
The 30-year old Desharnais is in the final year of deal and carries a $3.5 million cap hit.
The Canadiens have been linked to Martin Hanzal, Michael Stone, Patrik Berglund, Kevin Shattenkirk, Patrick Eaves, Alexandre Burrows, Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog.
On the New York Islanders …
Arthur Staple of Newsday: The expansion draft and a potentially flat salary cap next year will make this trade deadline a little different.
Dennis Seidenberg is the NY Islanders only pending free agent, so they wouldn’t have much rentals to sell if they go that route.
They are still trying to trade Jaroslav Halak.
Islanders are looking like they’d like to add at the deadline.
“We’re in a position where we can really do something,” said Doug Weight, who’s still an assistant GM to go with his duties as head coach. “We had a couple meetings, I talk to Snowy every day, and Claude , we have our eye on the ball of what we can do and I think there’s about 20 teams in our boat right now. Like any coach would say, I want to get as high as we can. Not putting pressure on anybody, but we could do something that could make our team better.”
The Islanders could use some of their depth on the blueline to add a forward. They could use a middle-six forward, maybe a No. 2 center to go between John Tavares line and Casey Cizikas‘ third line.
Rental options could be Patrick Sharp, Radim Vrbata and Martin Hanzal.
Longer term options could be Matt Duchene and Anthony Duclair.