NHL Rumors IV: Kesler and the Canucks, Penguins, Blues, Stars and Kings
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  • Jim Jamieson and Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province:  Six questions GM Jim Benning and Trevor Linden need to answer:

    1. The Kesler conundrum –  Ryan Kesler could expand or contract his list of teams he’d be willing to waive his no-trade clause for by the draft. Kesler doesn’t want a rebuild and won’t be happy if they don’t have coach in place by the draft. Kesler and the Canucks could talk again this week.

    2. The enigma of Daniel Sedin – what happened to his scoring ability?

    3. Coach with the most – the Canucks are looking someone that is a teacher, tactician, communicator, uptempo, upbeat, winner. John Stevens, Willie Desjardins and Doug Houda are coaching options.

    4. Beefing up the bottom six – Bo Horvat could be an option. Benning could use his scouting knowledge and find an AHLer who won’t be re-signed by their current team.

    5. How Swede is it? Swedish goaltending trio of Eddie Lack, Jacob Markstrom and Joacim Eriksson.

    6. Attacking the NTCs – The Canucks have 10 players on their roster that have no-trade clauses. Management will approach players that have them if they feel it would help the organization. Alex Edler, Jason Garrison and Kesler could all be asked to waive their NTC. Could they look at trading Dan Hamhuis?

  • The Fourth Period: The Blues will consider the trade market as they look to add a top-six scorer. They had shown interest in Senators Jason Spezza and are expected to have talks again. They could look at the free agent market: Matt Moulson, Mike Cammalleri, Paul Stastny and Milan Michalek.
  • Andy Strickland: Stars Rich Peverley hasn’t given up on playing next season. There has been at least one doctor that said he could play.
  • Igor Eronko: Kings 2012 121st overall pick Nikolai Prokhorkin has terminated his contract with CSKA and plans to join the team. Corey Pronman: Prokhorkin tried to come over in 2012-13 but wasn’t able to due to contractual issues.