NHL Tonight: Stu Grimson on NHL Tonight talking about some of the remaining unrestricted free agents.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jamison Coyle: “There’s still some names out there. UFAs. Cause we’re about under a month to go from the start of the NHL season. Here are some of those notable free agents.
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What do you think? If you’re a team, who’s a guy you would pluck off this list and could have an instant impact on your club?”
Grimson: “You know, there’s a couple of guys here I think are well worth talking about.
Phil Kessel for example. I mean, you sign a Phil Kessel, assuming you’re a team that maybe needs an add at the forward position, middle part of your roster to your deeper part of your roster. You know what you’re going to get in a Phil Kessel. He’s a lock for 30+ points and he’s going to play all 82 games.”
Coyle: “And how bout the fact that he came out and said that he doesn’t have to play all 82 games right? If you want to healthy scratch him, he’s okay with his Ironman streak coming to an end. That makes him probably more appealing to a lot of GMs out there.”
Grimson: “From a, if you want to call it a perspective, it makes good sense for Phil to get that out there cause he recognizes, ‘I’m at a very senior stage of my career but I can still contribute in a meaningful way.’ Even if they means 60, 70 games at year.
So, Phil Kessel would be a wise add. You know what you’re going to get when you go out and sign that. Just, what’s the right number for you?”
Coyle: “Eight points away from 1,000 too.”
Grimson: “Remarkable. I mean there aren’t a lot of players that get to that stature.
Paul Stastny, that’s a transaction of a different order. You get meaningful hockey. It’s different. It’s situational. It’s defensive-minded. But for a Paul Stastny, you know it’s almost as much what you get in the room, what you get on a practice day. Anybody that’s ever played with a Paul Stastny goes, ‘You know what, I learned as much from him about the game as a lot of the coaches that I played for.’ He’s got a really unique perspective.
Again, he’s from an NHL family and this is a guy that is a seasoned savvy veteran. Great cache. Fabulous respect league wide. Would also be a nice add.”
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Coyle: “Alright. How ’bout a guy like Patrick Kane. Of course, he’s not ready to rock and roll for the start of the season, but when he is, and based on what we saw on his short time in New York, I mean that’s a guy that obviously has a lot of appeal league wide.”
Grimson: “Yeah. Assuming health is a hurdle he’s able to get over and he’s able to, he’s a 100 percent just athletically on the ice, I think Patrick Kane, another guy.
You might draw a straight line to the New York Rangers on this one. But another guy. He’s got a lot of left in him and it really, the talent just courses through his veins. He knows this game exceptionally well. He’s very, very effective.”
Coyle: “Is there a team out there? I know we’re talking about players. Is there a team out there that you think, that you see some of those UFAs and that could be the ingredient to really push them over the edge there?
Like a Carolina Hurricanes or someone like that who is oh so close every year but maybe just one more piece or one piece away I should say?”
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Grimson: “Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I think the Carolina Hurricanes would be a group in that category. I know Tom Fitzgerald well and I would suspect he’s not done tinkering with his lineup either.
But there’s probably a handful of teams out there like that where one of these three characters we mentioned would be a savvy add.”
Coyle: “Time will tell. Lot of UFAs out there under a month to go.”