On the Toronto Maple Leafs …
Kristen Shilton: Coach Mike Babcock on the James van Riemsdyk and William Nylander trade rumors.
“I think there’s been a bunch of talk. I just talked to him. There was a bunch of talk about and Willy when we were in Calgary someone told me about. I just said play hard and don’t worry about it. We’re not looking to move those guys. One thing I know in sport, the truth today isn’t the truth tomorrow so you can’t spend a lot of time worrying about that. Do good things, good things happen for you.”
Mark Masters of TSN: James van Riemsdyk on the trade rumors.
“You don’t worry about it too much and that comes from experience,” the 27-year-old winger said. “I remember going through that sort of thing right after I got drafted and my first couple of years in Philly and it tends to eat at you a little bit more. But now you realize it’s completely out of your control and it doesn’t really faze you.”
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: (recent mailbag) The Toronto Maple Leafs may wait until after the season to acquire a top-four defenseman as they would then have to protect him for the expansion draft. They may prefer to protect three defensemen and seven forwards as opposed to four and four. At the moment they would likely protect Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner and Connor Carrick.
If they protected four defensemen, they would have to expose three players from Nazem Kadri, James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, Matt Martin, Connor Brown, and Brendan Liepsic.
Could wait until after the season/expansion draft to explore van Riemsdyk trades. He’d be a good fit with Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, NY Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Vancouver Canucks (if they think they are a playoff team) and Minnesota Wild.
On Karri Ramo …
Darren Dreger: Karri Ramo is expected to be cleared this week to return. The Toronto Maple Leafs could be an option to sign him, but can expect that other teams will be interested as well.