On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Forward Tyler Johnson has been tied to trade rumors since the trade deadline last year and in the offseason before he signed in his contract extension.
“(Yzerman) came up to me and said, ‘Don’t worry about all of that,'” Johnson said of the trade rumors. “I saw all that stuff, and I know that nothing is real, there’s really no smoke there at all. But people, for whatever reason, still try to talk about it.”
Johnson’s no-trade clause kicks in the offseason, so his name could come up again as some teams are looking for top-six centers.
“I think everyone thinks, ‘What if?’ ” Johnson said. “But at the same time, all it is is, ‘What if?’ There are so many armchair GMs making all these trades. They have zero idea what’s going on. A lot of people that have ‘inside sources’ never heard anything in their life.
“You just have to keep playing your game and keep doing what you can. We might go into the deadline without doing anything to our team. And we’d be happy with that. We like the guys here; we have the guys we want.”
Top 45 NHL trade bait board …
TSN: Top 45 players that could be traded leading up the NHL trade deadline.
1. Rick Nash – Left wing
2. Mike Green – Right defense
3. Derick Brassard – Center
4. Patrick Maroon – Left wing
5. Evander Kane – Left wing
6. Michael Grabner – Left wing
7. Mark Letestu – Center
8. Mike Hoffman – Left wing
9. Jack Johnson – Left defense
10. Max Pacioretty – Left wing
11. Max Domi – Center/Left wing
12. Thomas Vanek – Left wing
13. Zack Smith – Center/Left wing
14. Nick Holden – Left defense
15. Ryan McDonagh – Left defense
16. Tomas Plekanec – Center
17. Derek Ryan – Center
18. Jeff Skinner – Left wing
19. Alex Galchenyuk – Left wing
20. Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Center
21. Luke Glendening – Center
22. Boone Jenner – Center
23. Andrew Shaw – Center/Right wing
24. Jordan Kyrou – Center/Right wing
25. Johnny Oduya – Left defense
26. Gustav Nyquist – Right wing
27. Aaron Dell – Goaltender
28. Jon Gillies – Goaltender
29. Erik Gudbranson – Right defense
30. Matt Hunwick – Left defense
31. Benoit Pouliot – Left wing
32. Josh Leivo – Left wing
33. Tommy Wingels – Right wing
34. Blake Comeau – Right wing
35. Ben Hutton – Left defense
36. Matt Cullen – Center
37. Nic Petan – Center
38. Robin Lehner – Goaltender
39. Tomas Tatar – Left wing
40 Antoine Vermette – Center
41. Frank Vatrano – Left wing
42. Xavier Ouellet – Left defense
43. Danny DeKeyser – Left defense
44. Bobby Ryan – Left Wing
45. Tyson Barrie – Right defenseRi