On the Anaheim Ducks …
Eric Stephens of the OC Register: There were reports that Sami Vatanen is looking for a six year contract extension worth $6 million a season, something the Ducks have strongly denied. GM Bob Murray will talk with Vatanen’s camp later this season, and he’ll have plenty of decisions to make regarding their blueline.
“I had lots of calls on certain people on the back end,” Murray said. “I’ve got lots of thinking to do about our defensive corps in the next four months. I wasn’t doing anything today. I want to have a long, hard look at what we’ve got going forward.”
On the Florida Panthers …
George Richards: The only received a 6th round pick for Brandon Pirri, which surprised some.
“Obviously, we tried to get as much as we could, we wanted to get more,’’ said Tallon, who also acquired winger Juri Hudler and defenseman Jakob Kindl on Saturday. “A couple of things came into play. First, he’s injured a little bit and, second, teams were are concerned about arbitration moving forward and not knowing what his salary numbers would be.”
It was rumored that the Panthers may have had 2nd round pick offers, but on deadline day they could only get a late round pick.
On the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers …
Chris Nichlos on Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 690 on trade talk surrounding Canadiens Lars Eller and Oilers Nail Yakupov.
“Well, there’s some clarifying that needs to get done here. I spoke to both Jarrett Bousquet and Kevin Epp, who represent Lars Eller. Marc Bergevin did have a conversation with Jarrett Bousquet. He said that he wasn’t shopping Lars Eller. He did not say that he wasn’t going to trade Lars Eller.
“So you get into the semantics of the weekend and of the day. I think that Lars Eller and his people would have been surprised if he would have been traded based on that conversation, but again, he wasn’t flat out told he wouldn’t be traded. Honestly, I just don’t think there’s a ton of interest in him to be fair – and that sounds unfair, but that’s the reality of the day.
“I think you can say that about Nail Yakupov in Edmonton as well. Look, Peter Chiarelli is the guy who told me that Nail Yakupov was in play. His agent – one of them, anyway – Ian Pulver – would have been fine with Nail Yakupov getting a fresh start somewhere else.”