Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 radio on earlier this week on where the Canucks and Ducks are with a Jake Virtanen – Danton Heinen potential package deal.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“I think we all kind of got carried away on Saturday with that one. I don’t think it was even that close, I have to tell you Pat. I think I first mentioned on Tuesday last week that I heard Virtanen to the Ducks and that they were trying to work it out. But if you look at the situation, Virtanen is a million less than Heinen this year, and while Heinen doesn’t have a contract next year, Virtanen’s is $3.4. That’s cash not cap. Thats’s cash. I think the two teams are like dollar for dollar. They want dollar for dollar, and they couldn’t get it there.
I was told it was never a one-for-one. They were talking about other players. One of the players that I think Anaheim might have talked about in there was Derek Grant. That was one rumbling I heard. But it wasn’t anything that the two sides could agree on.
So, they may try again. Obviously, they’ve tried several times over the past week, but on Saturday I just heard people weren’t very optimistic.”
Friedman when asked what he thinks the interest level is for Virtanen around the league.
“That second year is really tough. That 3.4 next year is a real challenge. You know Pat, one of the things that is going on right now is, there just isn’t, there aren’t a lot of teams willing to take on money. It’s a real buyers market. There are a lot of sellers. There’s a lot of teams that don’t think they have a chance or they want to move cash.
How many teams out there do you really think want to take on cash? Not very many. And so, that’s the thing right now. Virtanen 3.4 next year, that’s causing a problem.”