On the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild …
Rory Boylen of Sportsnet: Nick Kypreos last night on Hockey Night in Canada Headlines on the possibility of the Montreal Canadiens trading captain Max Pacioretty.
“There’s no indication that Pacioretty wants out of Montreal,” he said. “But it’s clear from a few other teams that they want to watch this situation closely.
“Pacioretty is not being used like a four-time 30-goal scorer by the Montreal Canadiens. There seems to be some friction between Pacioretty and Therrien. A lot of teams are wondering if they’re going to be a team that soely relies on Carey Price and they’re going to have to win more games 2-1 than 5-4, maybe in fact they would think down the road they would move a guy like Pacioretty and go get a top-four defenceman to shore up a porous D right now and a tired Markov.”
Pacioretty only has five goals and 10 assists in 24 games this season, with only three points in their last nine games.
Elliotte Friedman adds that a Pacioretty trade is highly unlikely.
“I think it’s a tough trade to make,” Friedman said before emphasizing the speculation in this. “If, if you’re the Montreal Canadiens and you go down the road Nick presented it’s going to be a tough deal to make with a good scorer who makes $4.5 million. How are you going to get equal value in this league?”
Kypreos says the Vancouver Canucks trading for Boston Bruins forward Ryan Spooner would make sense. Kypreos points out the Friedman has said that Spooner is available. There is a history with Spooner and Canucks GM Jim Benning and forward Loui Eriksson.
Friedman adds that Edmonton Oilers Matt Hendricks was a healthy scratch again last night and he thinks the Oilers would be open to moving him. Hendricks is from Minnesota and Friedman wonders if they would be a potential fit.