Will the Sharks look to move some other contracts?
Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now: The San Jose Sharks didn’t buy out defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Erik Karlsson‘s contract is close to being untradeable.
Vlasic (35-years-old) has four years left at $7 million and Karlsson (31) has five years left at $11.5 million.
Logan Couture (33) has five years left at $8 million, and if they retained a bit of salary, he could be moved.
Sharks GM Mike Grier said that if Brent Burns wanted to stay, he’d still be a Shark. Burns was ready to leave.
The 28-year-old Tomas Hertl signed an eight-year extension in April. Is he having second thoughts?
Timo Meier is 25 and will be a RFA after next season. Will he want to stay?
The Jets are stuck in the middle
Murat Ates of The Athletic: Forward Paul Stastny is unlikely to re-sign with the Jets.
The Jets are stuck in the middle – not good enough to be a contender and not bad enough for a high pick.
They may have too many defensemen and are potentially blocking Ville Heinola and Dylan Samberg. Though GM Kevin Cheveldayoff doesn’t really see it that way, is happy with the group, but may need more.
“I think the bigger issue is when you don’t have enough defencemen,” he told reporters before stressing the importance of competition. “What you see on paper now … A month into the season, you just don’t know.”
Cheveldayoff said he could look to make some changes up front. They still need to re-sign Pierre-Luc Dubois, Mason Appleton and Jansen Harkins.
Pat Brisson, Dubois’ agent said to TVA Sports that Dubois would like to play in Montreal at some point, which is basically already known by everyone. Have been told that the Canadiens did have some trade proposals for the Jets for Dubois.
Forward Blake Wheeler has been in the rumor mill defenseman Brenden Dillon is getting trade interest.
The Jets have about $14.4 million to sign their RFAs, promote a defenseman and bring in two more forwards.
Dubois could get a one-year deal through arbitration and then gets traded next year
Maybe they could trade Wheeler for a bad contract – like Patric Hornqvist – or that one of their defensemen could return a middle-six forward.
Could they trade Nate Schmidt, Dillion, Logan Stanley, Heinola or Samberg?