Goaltending market picking up
Kevin Weekes: Sources have been saying that the goaltending market has been picking up of late.
Teams that are looking for goaltending depth have increased interest in Jonathan Quick, Jonathan Bernier (was injured Thursday night), Jonas Johansson (was traded yesterday) and Devan Dubnyk.
Injury impacts if Canucks were to move Tanner Pearson
Satiar Shah: The best-case scenario if the Vancouver Canucks were to trade Tanner Pearson would now be to get a conditional draft pick for him if he’s healthy enough to move before the trade deadline.
Kyle Palmieri and his pending free agency
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: New Jersey Devils forward Kyle Palmieri isn’t producing like he had hope in a contract year. Palmieri on trying to deal with being a pending UFA.
“But I think when you are uncertain about your future, and you’ve spent a long time and have been happy to be here and proud to be here, the uncertainty definitely weighs on you a little bit. I went into the season and knew those kinds of challenges were going to exist and tried to prepare myself for them. Coming in and being a positive influence on this team, working hard and having a smile on your face and being a good example is the small stuff you can control.
“A lot of that other stuff is way outside my control. I don’t know what the next day or week or month or six months is going to hold for me.”
Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald and agent Brian Barlett have held talks that were “more theoretical in nature.”
Comparables from pre-pandemic deals include Anders Lee, Evander Kane, Max Pacioretty and James van Riemsdyk ($7 million AAV), and T.J. Oshie and Cam Atkinson ($6 million AAV). Bartlett cites more recent deals for Chris Kreider and Brendan Gallagher ($6.5 million).
“It’s also Kyle’s one chance to explore free agency in his prime, too,” Bartlett said. “It’s a tricky one. You can’t just sign on for anything because you want to be part of the rebuild. It needs to be a fair number that I think is not a mystery.”
Palmieri has an eight-team no-trade clause but would likely waive it for the right situation. Fitzgerald said again that their goal is to try and get a contract worked out with Palmieri, and if they can’t, they’ll “figure out what the next step is.”