No quick fix for the Canadiens
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: There is no magic trade that will fix the Montreal Canadiens.
Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme is not on the hot seat.
Carey Price hadn’t skated in 40 days, so his return isn’t imminent.
Nothing new on a contract extension for GM Marc Bergevin. It looks like this could be his final season as the Canadiens GM.
The Golden Knights can get under the cap by….
Jesse Granger of The Athletic: One, not too painless, way for the Vegas Golden Knights to get under the salary cap whenever Jack Eichel is ready to join the Golden Knights lineup is to send Jake Leschyshyn and Jonas Rondbjerg to the AHL, waive Michael Amadio and Ben Hutton, and trade pending UFAs forward Reilly Smith and defenseman Brayden McNabb.
That would put the Golden Knights $300,000 under the cap ceiling with a 21-man roster.
Looking ahead to the 2022-23 season, the Golden Knights have $77.8 million committed to 16 players. Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Alex Pietrangelo take up $35.3 million and 43.3 percent of their cap space.
Pending RFAs for the Golden Knights include Nic Hague, Nic Roy, Brett Howden, Keegan Kolesar and Amadio.
Korpisalo may be gone by the deadline, but will anyone else follow?
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: (mailbag) Don’t believe that the Columbus Blue Jackets have figured out exactly what they want to do with pending free agents Patrik Laine and Jakub Voracek and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, and the March 21st NHL trade deadline yet.
They currently may have too many wingers on their roster. Max Domi and Gregory Hofmann are pending UFAs as well.
It would be a surprise if Korpisalo finished the season with the Blue Jackets.
If Laine continues to play well and show that he can score 40 or 50 goals, it would be foolish for the Blue Jackets to trade him. Don’t know if the Blue Jackets and Laine have held any preliminary talks.