On the Winnipeg Jets and Jacob Trouba …
Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun: The Winnipeg Jets and Jacob Trouba‘s camp have kept things quiet. It’s looking like each side is waiting for the other side to blink first.
The Jets home opener is on October 13th, and the closer it gets to that date without a deal, the more it could become a distraction.
Trouba doesn’t have a lot of bargaining power and he wants to be paid like a top blueliner. He found himself behind Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers and sometimes Tobias Enstrom last season. He may only get power play time on the second unit this year.
He may develop into a top blueliner, but if he wants $6 or $7 million a season, he should take a bridge deal for now.
It’s clear that he doesn’t want to do a bridge deal, so he’ll likely have to take something in the $5 million a season range for the next five or six years. Dougie Hamilton‘s six-year deal at $5.75 million should be the high range. He won’t get more than $6.125 million the Jets gave Mark Scheifele for the next eight-years.
On Ben Bishop …
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop on how he was nearly traded to the Calgary Flames back at the draft.
“It was up to me. They were on my no-trade or whatever, so that kinda has to get worked out. It was one of those things where at the draft it could’ve happened,” Bishop told Sportsnet last week in Columbus. “Obviously, it’s not that close if it didn’t.”
Bishop’s camp were trying to work out a contract extension with the Flames, but the Flames changed course and traded for Blues Brian Elliott.
Lightning GM Steve Yzerman said last week that keeping both Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy for the entire year is not a bad option. The Lightning can only protect one goalie in June’s expansion draft.
“I’m just glad I don’t have to make those decisions. That’s why they pay him the big bucks,” Bishop said of Yzerman. “For us, it’s just about doing our job and trying to win a Stanley Cup. Try to win each game. The business side will take care of the business side.”