Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show on who the Toronto Maple Leafs could have interest in on the blue line now with John Klingberg on the LTIR for the remainder of the season.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “John Klingberg will miss the season, hip surgery so the $4.15 (million) goes on LTR for the remainder of the season as Brad Treliving goes shopping. We already know about (Nikita) Zadorov. That’s a Vancouver play. We wonder about (Chris) Tanev.
Who else do you wonder about with the Toronto Maple Leafs? I want to try to lead you to a couple of names here but first blush, who are you thinking about with Toronto?
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Friedman: “Well, I’m thinking about preferably right-hand shots with a bit of snot as Treliving has said before. And I think, I don’t think they’re, like Tanev, I think is a unique case because I don’t think they’re really into rentals at a higher price. But I think he wouldn’t be different because I think they would believe that they could sign him. So I do think that’s a little bit of a different situation there with him.
You know, I’ve had a couple of people ask me or you know, like someone like Noah Hanifin and I just don’t know. Like I think that’s a high price as a rental and what he’s going to command on the open market. I’m just not sure they’re going to be able to do that. So you know, that’s, that’s another one there.
Now I wrote about Rasmus Ristolainen today. I did get some pushback on that and I got some other people saying they, they think that Toronto at least went to go look at him. So, I’ll see how that one plays out. I did have someone say to me, they don’t believe it’s gonna be him. But you know, I think Toronto has been around Philly looking at some of their situations and I’m not convinced that it’s going to be Sean Walker for them, but I think they’re looking for someone with a bit more snarl.
So, I mean, basically, I’m just going around now and trying to figure out who might their people be. And it’s not always easy to it, basically, you’re going up and down the rosters and trying to figure out, alright, what are we looking at here?”
Marek: “Let me throw a name your way and I know …”
Friedman: “Sure.”
Marek: “the team was getting calls on him but I don’t think that anything is, I don’t think anything we should be describing as imminent. But let me throw a name your way. Nick Seeler with the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s a free agent at the end of this season.”
Friedman: “Well I think that’s another one. Yep.
I do. Like I said I think the Leafs have been looking at Philly. I think they’ve been checking out. Nick Seeler is another one there. Like the thing about Philadelphia is it’s going really well for them right now. Right? So why, why would you want to change anything?
So I think that’s part of it. Like, you know, don’t forget like, you know, Philly is run by guys like Danny Briere and Keith Jones, like they understand what that does to a dressing room, you know, when things are going really well.
So there’s, there’s no pressure on them to do anything at this point in time. So, but I think, you know Seeler’s a guy that got some (love?) last year and Philly really likes him. You know, so it’s gonna have some decisions to make. And Walker’s had a really good year. They want to keep them. Seeler’s been a really nice fit there. Do they want to keep him? So I think Philly’s gonna have to decide, you know, kind of what they want to do.
I mean the other thing too with the Leafs that I should, and someone didn’t point this out to me this morning, is if you’re talking anyone in the term, the Leafs might want the retention.”
Marek: “Right.”
“So even for this year, they’re gonna want retention. So, you know, we talked about how that whole Calgary trade where they were looking to do, where they asked about both Zadorov and Tanev. What was the issue? It was retention and what was the cost that they were going to have to pay for Calgary to do that.”
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Marek: “Right.”
Friedman: “To say it’s gonna be the same thing in any other deal they made here is, what’s the cost of retention and additional costs for the players. But I think Seeler’s a great name. I’m just not convinced that, that Philly is going to, like I said Philly’s in no rush and they probably have to make their own decisions first.”
