Devils looking for a top-six
Amanda Stein: New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald:
“I’d like to add a top-six winger. They’re hard to come by.”
“I’m trying.”
Do teams that missed out on Saad turn to Tatar or Tarasenko?
Adrian Dater: Believe that the Colorado Avalanche weren’t going to give Brandon Saad more than three years. He’s a good player but thinks five years was too much (what the Blues gave him).
David Pagnotta: The New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes were in on Saad.
Do those teams turn to Tomas Tatar and Vladimir Tarasenko?
David Pagnotta: The Avalanche were among the teams that have talked to Tatar’s camp.
Can the Blues retain a bit of Tarasenko’s salary? Islanders still in the mix
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: The St. Louis Blues have about $8.5 million in projected salary cap space with RFAs Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Ivan Barbashev and Zach Sanford left to re-sign.
With getting Brandon Saad signed at $4.5 million, will it allow GM Doug Armstrong to retain a little more of Vladimir Tarasenko’s $7.5 million cap hit?
The New York Islanders have over $17 million in cap space, are in the mix for Tarasenko, but have three RFAs of their own to re-sign – Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelech and Ilya Sorokin.
Beauvillier’s name has come up in Tarasenko and other trade talks.
Teams interested in Krejci if he wants to play elsewhere
Jimmy Murphy of Boston Hockey Now: Free agent center David Krejci has said that if he returns next season, he’ll only play for the Boston Bruins. Other teams have been calling regardless of what he said.
Multiple sources have said that Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Colorado Avalanche all checked in and said they’d be interested if he was interested in playing elsewhere.
“From what I was told, as I’m sure you were too, it’s either Bruins or the Czech Republic or he retires,” an NHL source, not working for any of those five teams listed above, told BHN Thursday. “But still, a team in need of a top 6 center isn’t doing their job if they don’t at least look into it.”