- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Landing spots for Jason Spezza appear less after the Kesler trade to Anaheim and his refusal to go to Nashville.
“They’ve done their James Neal trade, so that has gone away,” Murray said. “Anaheim’s gone away with Kesler, so the field narrows a little bit. But yeah, they might need to have a little change in approach, as well as I do.”
Source last night saying that Spezza has no intention of changing his mind about going to Nashville. GM David Poile would have loved to add a center like Spezza, or perhaps a Paul Stastny on Tuesday.
“If I had it on my wish list, I would like to get a No. 1 center, and we’re going to try to get that,” Poile said. “If that happens the next couple of days or it happens in free agency or it happens through a trade that would be great. If it doesn’t happen right now, I have patience. I don’t think we really have an age problem on our team, but I think we’re really getting the correct pieces in place to be a more competitive club than we’ve been in the last couple of years.”
Teams that will lose out on Stastny, may circle back to Murray for Spezza.
“We’ll continue to talk and, over the course of time, I’m sure people that miss out on July 1 may come knocking, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Murray said.
“Jason’s a 80-90 point guy, and you don’t get that return in any kind of trade in this league today, but I’m hoping we get something fair for the organization, so that we can put a player on the ice and maybe get a prospect or two and go from there.”
The Blues talked to the Senators on Saturday morning with the Sens trying to get the Blues second round pick, but the Blues wouldn’t budge. The Blackhawks are also said to be interested, but they wouldn’t have to move out salary.
Canadiens Josh Gorges (four years at a $3.9 million salary cap hit) could be in play. He has a 15 team no-trade list which includes the Maple Leafs.
The $69 million salary cap is about a $1 million less than teams had been planing for. Teams like the Blackhawks, Bruins, Flyers and Rangers will be affected. The league wanted it to be $70 million, but the NHLPA wanted it at $69 to lessen the amount of escrow.
The Stars are looking to add a forward or two. Sources say they have interest in Joe Thornton and Jason Spezza.
The Avs are likely to talk with Paul Stastny again today.
“We’re going to continue talking, I’m going to talk to him probably tomorrow,” Avs executive Joe Sakic said Saturday. “We’ll see where we’re at.”
If Daniel Alfredsson plays next season, it would likely only be for the Red Wings.
Don’t be surprised if Matt Niskanen gets more than $5 million on a five or six year deal.