Will the Senators look to move a defenseman?
Bruce Garrioch: After the Ottawa Senators signed defenseman Michael Del Zotto and traded for Nick Holden, you have to wonder if they will look at trading one of Victor Mete or Erik Brannstrom.
Richardson mulling offers
Craig Morgan: Arizona Coyotes UFA forward Brad Richardson wants to keep playing and is going over several offers.
Blues still trying to trade Tarasenko
The Fourth Period: The St. Louis Blues continue to work on a Vladimir Tarasenko trade. They’ve been having trade talks with the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and Vegas Golden Knights.
The Florida Panthers and Boston Bruins are no longer in the mix. It’s not known if the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils are still interested. One source said the Devils could circle back.
Teams are asking the Blues to retain salary, and the asking price remains high.
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: A source said that it’s pretty quiet on the Vladimir Tarasenko trade front. The source added the longer they hold on to him the lesser his trade value becomes. A deal should have been made by now.
“The trajectory doesn’t get any better,” the source said. “They shit on this guy … to their own detriment. It’s time to move him. The train has left the station.”
The Blues were asking too much for him and the four interested teams are now down to two. The New Jersey Devils and the Carolina Hurricanes would make the most sense,
The Devils have just over $22 million in salary cap space but are also still in the running for Brandon Saad according to Pierre LeBrun. The Hurricanes have over $15 in cap space but need to re-sign Andrei Svechnikov.
There may be some teams that are waiting for the Jack Eichel situation to get resolved before circling back to the Blues. Bob McKenzie said yesterday that it was quiet on the Eichel front as well.
A source said that the Seattle Kraken would have drafted Tarasenko to trade him to anyone, but this no-trade clause killed that idea.