On the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues …
Jimmy Murphy of Dirty Water Sports: From a Blues and a NHL source, at the trade deadline, the Bruins and Blues were close to a deal that would have sent Kevin Shattenkirk, a conditional 2nd or 3rd round pick and a roster player to the Bruins for Loui Eriksson and the 2016 1st round pick the Bruins received from the Sharks.
Both sources saying the deal didn’t happen because the Bruins didn’t want to take the additional salary from the roster player that the Blues were including in the deal.
Just for Eriksson, the Bruins were asking the Blues for a 2016 first round pick and Dmitrij Jaskin.
Source also said the San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers talked to the Bruins about Eriksson.
The Bruins could still revisit Shattenkirk talks with the Blues this offseason.
The Bruins could still trade the rights to Eriksson and could maybe get a third round pick for him.
On the St. Louis Blues …
R.B. Fallstrom of the Globe and Mail: Blues GM Doug Armstrong on the trade deadline and the injuries they were dealing with at that time.
“We weren’t prepared to give a second-round pick for a player that was going to end up sitting beside me when we got healthy,” Armstrong said.
“We were comfortable that everybody was getting healthier and we just moved forward with that.”
On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Eric Engels: “Can’t help but feel like Drouin is the final piece pushing Stamkos to free agency. Why pay? Pretty amazing turn of events…”
On Expansion …
David Pagnotta: Checked in on the expansion process and was told “nothing new to report.” The NHL executive committee still haven’t made any recommendations to the Board of Governors. It is thought that it will happen “soon,” but not known when “soon” is.
