On the Montreal Canadiens …
Shawn Simpson: Since the Canadiens weren’t able to get in on John Tavares, bet they overpay Paul Stastny. He’s a perfect No. 2 center at this point.
L.A. Lariviere: Confirming that the Canadiens have shown interest in Kings defenseman Slava Voynov. He has a court case in California for a pardon on July 2nd. After that the NHL will have to make a decision on him.
Aivis Kalnins: The Canadiens and Voynov have been linked to this rumors earlier this offseason. In previous times, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin and his staff have tried to “shut it down.”
Brian Wilde: “If UFAs don’t want to come to the Habs here’s how you profit from that. You facilitate another team’s cap woes by picking up a bad contract and they give you a first rounder so they can sign the UFA. Can’t afford Tavares. Let us help. We got tons of money we can’t even spend.”
On the Montreal Canadiens and Los Angeles Kings …
Chris Nichols of FRS Hockey: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 on what he knows about the Max Pacioretty trade to the Los Angeles Kings that didn’t go through as an extentson didn’t get accepted.
“The belief is that there was a deal in place with the Los Angeles Kings for Max Pacioretty, and that it didn’t get done because there wasn’t the ability to get a contract extension done,” explained McKenzie. “And obviously complicating things was that, as I understand it, the contract offer that Pacioretty got went through his agent, Pat Brisson, on Friday and by Saturday morning, Max Pacioretty had changed agents, and had gone to Allan Walsh.”
A deal for Pacioretty could still get done with the Kings, and the signing of Ilya Kovalchuk doesn’t take them out of it according to McKenzie. Now that the draft is over, and assuming an extension could be worked out and with 2018 draft picks likely part of the deal, may not be as simple of going back to the original deal.
“I guess you can never rule out a contract extension with the Canadiens, but I also still think there’s a lot of balls in the air for a lot of teams this week, and Pacioretty could still be one of those. So I’m not at the point now where I would say, ‘Oh well, they couldn’t get it done. They’re not going to get it done. They can sort out whether they’re going to get an extension done.’”