- Elliotte Friedman of CBC: The Canucks are bringing their entire scouting staff to the GM meetings in Toronto on Wednesday.Teams like the Canucks (looking for centres), Philadelphia (defencemen), Rangers (a defenceman and depth forwards) and Nashville (offence) are looking to make a move before the April 3rd trade deadline.Teams will wait to see if Jarome Iginla becomes available.
Teams are chasing: Ryane Clowe, Brenden Morrow, Robyn Regehr and Nate Thompson.
Filip Kuba makes sense for the Rangers, but he’s owed $4 million next season.
Derek Roy and Brenden Morrow have been mentioned in Dallas, but don’t forget about Jaromir Jagr.
The Hurricanes plan on re-signing Alex Semin.
Teams may be nervous about Clowe. Was he more injured than was let on? He left Saturday’s game with a shoulder injury.
Sabres GM Darcy Regier is extremely cautious and intensely thinks things through before reacting. Friedman guesses that he won’t blow it up, but may make one big move and get a significant return back. Can’t see him moving all of Ryan Miller, Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville.
The Leafs won’t make a move that will jeopordize their playoff chances.
The Flames assistant GM John Weisbrod has chased Flyers winger Matt Read for years.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong on RFA defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk, “You sign bad contracts when you sign contracts out of fear. We have stable ownership. We’ll match any offer sheet…We will get them signed at contracts everyone is comfortable with.” Armstrong added that “we’ve yet to see an offer sheet work with top-end players.”
The Blues also have RFAs Chris Stewart and Patrick Berglund.
Former CEO of AEG, Tim Leiweke, may be interested in being the CEO of MLSE.
Friedman is starting to think that Oilers Ryan Whitney may not be going anywhere.
- Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun: If the Jets were to make a move, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff may look to acquire:
“I’d love to be able to acquire something that could inspire some more scoring for us,” Cheveldayoff said. “Our left side with Ladd and Kane has played well. Wheeler on the right side has played well. And the guys that have been auditioning up and down the lineup on the right side, you’ve seen some good things and you’ve seen some times where you wish you had more.”
“There’s a long line,” Cheveldayoff conceded. “But we’ve positioned ourselves well. We do have the assets that if the right deal comes along we can pounce on it.”
If the Jets are out the playoff hunt, they could dangle UFAs Ron Hainsey and Nik Antropov.
- Ken Wiebe via twitter: It’s possible that the Jets could trade defenseman Ron Hainsey before the trade deadline if the price is right, but it’s far from certain that they will.
- Arthur Staple of Newsday: The Islanders began preliminary talks with defenseman Mark Streit last month. Sources are saying the Islanders will begin talks with Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov shortly. The 37-year old Nabokov has no plans to retire after the season.
“I’m enjoying it, I want to continue to play,” the 37-year-old goaltender said. “And I feel the same as last year — I like the guys here, I like the direction of the team. When the time will come, we will definitely talk .”
Despite not reporting to the Islanders right away this season, he did say on Friday that he’s willing to listen to an offer.
“Sure, why not? I’m open for anything,” he said. “Next year is far off, and right now I’m thinking about the next game here, this team here. I was never thinking about the deadline. I’m playing for the Islanders and I’m happy here.”
Indications are that the Islanders would like to extend Brad Boyes as well.