On the Nashville Predators …
- Adam Vingan of the Tennessean: (mailbag) Odds of Jimmy Vesey joining the Predators for the playoffs. Predators GM David Poile chose not to trade for anyone at the deadline, feeling that he didn’t want to take a roster spot potentially from Vesey.
“We feel he is as good or better than anybody we could have gotten in a trade,” Predators general manager David Poile said last Monday. “We want to sign him when he gets out of school. We’ve told him we have a place for him and I didn’t want to take away that place.”
If Harvard qualifies for the NCAA Frozen Four, the tournament runs from March 25th to April 9th. If they don’t qualify, or if knocked out early, he could get into some regular season games. They do still need to sign him. They hold his rights until August 15th. The Preds think he could immediately fit into their top-six.
On the Toronto Maple Leafs …
- Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: Leafs defenseman are auditioning for positions next year. Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner and Matt Hunwick are under contract. They are expected to signed 24-year old KHL defenseman Nikita Zaitsev. Pending RFAs include Martin Marincin, Frank Corrado and Connor Carrick. Others who will be looking to make the jump from to the Leafs blueline include Viktor Loov, Scott Harrington, Rinat Valiev and Stu Percy.
“Every day is an audition for all of us, let’s not kid ourselves,” Babcock said. “Most of us, unless we are really, really good at our job, we are on a tryout every day.
“I know what you’re getting at, but I don’t have an answer for you because I don’t know what’s available (in the future). The best players get to play. That’s what I do know.”
On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
- Jenn Menedez of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford was happy to add Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz without having to trade one of their two second round picks in the 2016 draft.
“The second-round picks are good picks this year. This is a real good draft,” he said. “It’s good we could retain both of them. We added a young defenseman with a big upside for a third-round pick. Our defense should be fine and should be fine going forward beyond this year.”