On the Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning …
David Pagnotta: Some teams have called the Oilers about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lately but there is nothing close. The Lightning are getting calls on Tyler Johnson, but are not close on anything.
On the Anaheim Ducks …
Eric Stephens: Ducks GM Bob Murray said that he’s spoken with unrestricted free agent Nate Thompson but his camp said there is a lot of interest to test the open market.
On the Ottawa Senators …
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Dion Phaneuf situation is well known by now. The Senators would prefer not to trade him now, but that can always change with a call
“We’d like to keep Dion. Everyone know’s what happened. We asked to waive his ‘no move,’ and I think you always have to explore all options,” Dorion said Saturday at the United Center. “Dion has been a great player for us over the last (18 months). He has been tremendous in our room. He’s really well-respected.
“Teams are phoning because we had to look at the trade market for all our defencemen … except for Erik Karlsson. People have kept phoning because there’s not an endless supply of quality, top-four defencemen in the league and teams are phoning. You have to take calls. Teams have phoned. I’m not going to mislead you.”
Phaneuf wouldn’t waive his no-movement clause for the expansion draft, which is his right, but because of it the Senators lost Marc Methot to Vegas. The Senators are getting genuine interest from a few teams on Phaneuf but he would have to expand his 12 team trade list and it appears he doesn’t want to.
Los Angeles Kings GM Rob Blake had a long conversation with Senators GM Pierre Dorion after the draft and indications are that Kings have shown interest.
“Everything is fine between me and Dion. If he wants me to go visit him at the compound on (Prince Edward Island), I’ll definitely go visit him,” Dorion said. “I wanted to wait until after the draft (to speak to Phaneuf again) because teams have been phoning on him and we’re exploring all avenues.
“I’ll probably reach out to him in the next week and just talk to him. We had a great conversation. Dion’s as good of a pro as I’ve ever seen in my career. When we had the conversation, it was good. They’re not an easy conversation and he understood. It was a man-to-man conversation. There was no bulls—t.”