On Las Vegas …
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Sources saying that Las Vegas will be given a 48-hour window before the expansion draft to talk with and sign any unprotected UFAs and RFAs. If Vegas is able to sign a pending free agent away from a team, that team won’t lose a player in the draft.
Scouting the Maple Leafs-Panthers game on Thursday night …
Dhiren Mahilban: List of scouts for Thursday’s Maple Leafs-Panthers game: Coyotes, Blackhawks, Blues, Flames, Rangers, Panthers, Avs, Oilers, Canadiens, Kings, Sharks and Blue Jackets.
On the Winnipeg Jets and Jacob Trouba …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 following up Darren Dreger’s report that the Jets would offer Trouba a six-year deal at $5.5 million a season, but Trouba’s camp saying it’s not about money, and that Trouba may not want to play in Canada.
McKenzie notes that the sense is Trouba would prefer to play in the US as opposed to Canada.
“So we’ll see. I still think what it comes back to is it’s very quiet on the Trouba trade front. I really don’t believe the Winnipeg Jets are proactively trying to move this player. I’m sure they’re getting calls. And I’m sure they have an idea of what is being offered. But I think they look at it and they say, ‘You know what? We’ve got a lot of really good, young players on this team. We’ve got a potential – a pretty good, quasi stud center in Mark Scheifele, who’s still very young. 22 years old. We’ve got Laine, and we’ve got all of these tremendous scoring wingers – Kyle Connor and Nik Ehlers. Elite guys with offensive ability. We’ve got obviously Byfuglien as a veteran D, and Myers as a mid-age veteran D. But we have right now in Jacob Trouba a young, stud D.’
“So when you start building a championship team, you’re looking for all of those elements. ‘Elite, goal-scoring wingers? Yeah, we’ve got lots of those. A big, number one center? Yeah, we’ve got Mark Scheifele developing on that front. And a stud, top-pairing, No. 1 defenseman? Yeah, we’ve got Jacob Trouba.’ So you can see why Winnipeg doesn’t want to get rid of him.”