On the New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, Montreal Canadiens, Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings …
Craig Custance of ESPN: New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero on trade talk that is going on.
“It’s just normal,” he said of trade talk right now. “We’re still a few weeks away from the draft. The cap number will come out soon. Everybody is reading the tea leaves. We’re planning for that. With the assumption expansion is coming, we still have no idea exactly what the rules are going to be.”
Washington Capitals assistant GM Ross Mahoney on why they interviewed Auston Matthews at the combine.
“You never know, whether it’s this upcoming draft whether you’re switching positions as far as moving up or back in the draft. Also, in the future, trades might come up,” Mahoney said when we chatted. “It’s a bank of knowledge that might become useful in the future.”
If the Montreal Canadiens were to trade P.K. Subban, would think the front-runners would have to be the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche. The Oilers have Taylor Hall or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the 4th overall pick that could be included in some type of deal. The Avalanche have Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie. Barrie could be moved in a secondary deal.
The Dallas Stars and Alex Goligoski are still talking about a contract according to a source. Multiple teams will be interested in him if he hits the open market.
The Chicago Blackhawks continue to try and trade Bryan Bickell‘s contract in order to help re-sign Andrew Shaw and potentially pending UFA Brian Campbell. It might take including Teuvo Teravainen to get a deal done and that wouldn’t be easy for the Blackhawks to make.
If Pavel Datsyuk does leave the NHL, potential destinations for his salary cap hit include Carolina, New Jersey and Arizona. There was some thought that a Detroit Red Wings-Alexander Radulov deal was done and they were just waiting for Datsyuk’s contract to be moved, but that may not be the case. Radulov currently wants more than the Wings want to go.
Devils GM Shero on their ability to take on a bad contract with some extra assets involved.
“Yeah. We’ve looked at that in the past. There’s a difference between taking on a contract to take on a bad contract to buy that contract out, which takes cash,” Shero said. “There are all kinds of different scenarios. is an asset in the league. I’ve been on the other end. You’re trying to do the gymnastics . You’re looking for teams, but just because teams have cap space doesn’t mean teams want to take on the money, budget-wise.”