Devils mailbag
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: (mailbag) The Buffalo Sabres are not going to be trading Jack Eichel, and things would have to get considerably worse in Buffalo for them to move him.
Any offer from the New Jersey Devils has to include either Jack Hughes or Nico Hischier. Sabres GM Jason Botterill wouldn’t trade Eichel for draft picks and prospects.
If Eichel asked for a trade, it wouldn’t really hurt the Sabres leverage.
The Devils could use their extra salary cap space next season to trade for a young player who a team may not be able to afford. Taking on a veteran with an added sweetener of a draft pick or prospect is also possible. There may be more teams looking to shed salary this offseason.
Potential trade and free agent targets that can score and have some leadership traits include Alex Killorn from the Tampa Bay Lightning and pending UFA Craig Smith.
It’s unlikely the Devils make a trade with any of the teams that missed the playoffs.
If money and term are even or close, would think the Devils would extend Nikita Gusev over Kyle Palmieri.
Gillis would open idea of the Blackhawks vacant president position
Scott Powers of The Athletic: Former GM Mike Gillis would be willing to listen to the Chicago Blackhawks if they had an interest in him for their vacant team presidency.
“I’ve had teams call and ask what my plans are, and as I’ve said, you know, I’m really interested in a highly collaborative, forward-thinking place,” Gillis said by phone Thursday. “That requires real commitment. So of course I’d have the conversation and see if people are committed to that kind of thinking or that kind of strategy. And if they’re not, they’re not, which is fine. Lots of teams have had success in the past without it.
“But I truly believe that the future lies in taking advantage of all these great tools that have come available most recently. And in order to do that, you need to have a group of people in your executive suite that adopt those principles and believe in them, and then you have to apply them and you have to continually evaluate them and you have to be successful. That’s the type of stuff, yeah, I got a lot of time for discussing and thinking about it.”