On the Florida Panthers …
Jameson Olive: Panthers GM Dale Tallon said they plan on being “aggressive in free agency” and that they have a “a plan in place.”
Harvey Fialkov: Jagr’s agent sounded optimistic that a deal could get done and losing two right wingers to expansion affects it.
On the Arizona Coyotes …
Darren Dreger: The Coyotes should be one of the more active teams in the next couple days. They are in the market for a goalie, centers and defensemen.
Craig Morgan: Coyotes GM John Chayka hopes he’s able to be active on the trade market today and at the draft tomorrow.
Trade Notes and Top 20 Trade Bait Board …
Frank Seravalli of TSN: Marc Methot or Alexei Emelin could be on the move.
Teams that lost a player in the expansion draft are not allowed to re-acquire that player until January 1st, 2018.
Vegas could be open to packaging some of their first round picks – No.’s 6, 13 and 15.
The Minnesota Wild could move either Matt Dumba or Marco Scandella.
The Montreal Canadiens are looking for defenseman and could use Alex Galchenyuk as trade bait.
Jordan Eberle and Matt Duchene have both been tied to the New York Islanders. Some think Islanders GM Garth Snow moved out Mikhail Grabovski to make it easier to bring in both Eberle and Duchene.
Top 20 Trade Bait Board
- Jordan Eberle
- Matt Duchene
Trevor van Riemsdyk- David Schlemko
- Alex Galchenyuk
- Marcus Kruger
- Travis Hamonic
- Tyson Barrie
- Marc Methot
- Alexei Emelin
- Marco Scandella
- Evander Kane
- Matt Dumba
- Vegas 1st round draft picks
- Ilya Kovalchuk
- Derek Stepan
- Chris Tanev
- Robin Lehner
- Jimmy Hayes
- Colin Miller
On the expansion draft selections/process …
Jonathan Willis: “Common misconception I’m seeing: That VGK really had access to all the “unprotected” players not shielded by their respective NHL teams.
Take ANA. Theoretically, VGK could have had Manson. But w/o a side deal, ANA would likely have bought out Bieksa and protected Manson.
MIN is another example. Without a side deal, perhaps they deal Brodin for picks and lose Scandella. Not great for them or VGK.
This way, MIN doesn’t decimate its D, and VGK gets a bunch of stuff. It’s not really “Dumba for Haula+”, its more like “Haula for … Haula, plus stuff for not having to make a bunch of other deals inconvenient to MIN”
None of this explains things like the Emelin or Sbisa selections, though trades in coming days may yet clear those up.”