Scouting the Philadelphia Flyers – Boston Bruins …
Adam Kimelman: Listed to attend last night’s Flyers-Bruins game were the Panthers, Jets and Blue Jackets.
On the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jimmy Vesey and William Nylander …
Leafs Lunch TSN 1050: Darren Dreger: “#Leafs were deeply disappointed Jimmy Vesey chose NYR – Babcock viewed Vesey as the perfect compliment to Auston Matthews.” … “Had Toronto landed Jimmy Vesey, I would think Nylander probably would have been gone by now.”
On the Florida Panthers, Montreal Canadiens, Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk, Chicago Blackhawks, Arizona Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and Buffalo Sabres …
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: The Panthers moved David Bolland’s contract in the offseason as they wanted the cap flexibility. They have the room to add someone if they choose.
Friedman wonders if somewhere quieter would be better for Max Pacioretty.
“This is me talking here, but if (and I stress if) the Canadiens ever wanted to do this, the difficulty is you are trading a 30-goal scorer with a $4.5M average salary. That is worth a ton in today’s NHL. What is equal value? Has to be a lot. I don’t know many teams that could pull it off.”
The top pending UFA defensemen are Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk. Nick Kypreos reported that Alzner is looking for between $5.5 and $6 million a season. Teams in the Western Canada could be interested in Alzner.
Some teams were allowed during the offseason to speak with Shattenkirk. The Coyotes and Oilers were two of the teams. Don’t think that Shattenkirk was interested in playing in Edmonton. The Coyotes made some headway. Some teams think Shattenkirk wants to play for the Rangers, but they’d have salary cap issues.
A source said that the Blackhawks showed some interest in Sam Gagner in the offseason.
Wonder if the Coyotes would be interested in Maple Leafs center Peter Holland because of Brad Richardson‘s injury.
Wonder if Thomas Greiss could be a backup option for the San Jose Sharks.
The Sabres have been scouting the Canucks AHL team a lot. Assuming Jake Virtanen.