Scouting the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins
Shawn Hutcheon: Scouts listed to attend yesterday’s Stars – Bruins in Boston include the Ottawa Senators (2), St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars and the Arizona Coyotes.
Tab Bamford: The Blackhawks don’t play the Bruins again the season and don’t play the Stars until April 6th.
NHL Rumors: Jacob Markstrom on the Trade Rumors Surrounding Teammates and Himself
The potential price to sign Sean Walker
Anthony Di Marco: The Philadelphia Flyers and pending UFA defenseman Sean Walker haven’t started contract negotiations. The sides spoke briefly with Walker’s agents with they were in Toronto last week but there were no formal talks.
The Flyers may be thinking something in the $4 to $4.5 million per season would be fair and Walker’s camp could be thinking in the $5 to $5.5 million per season range.
Term and trade protection could also factor in.
The St. Louis Blues are a bubble team and could make a few tweaks
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong on if they could look at a full rebuild or a retool.
“I know in our market, and I’ve talked to our ownership group about it and I get their guidance on it, I don’t think our fan base deserves or wants to be part of an eight-to-10-year rebuild.”
The Blues moved out some players at the deadline last year and acquired two first-round picks a top prospect. The Blues are building with depth and as a team. They don’t really have star power at the moment.
The Blues are a bubble team this year. Armstrong says that if you’re a top 10 team, you may be one player away but if you’re outside of that, doubling down at the deadline may not make sense.
NHL Rumors: St. Louis Blues, and the New Jersey Devils
They’ll have to make decisions on pending UFAs Sammy Blais, Kasperi Kapanen, Oskar Sundqvist and Marco Scandella. Pavel Buchnevich has a year left on his contract and would get interest. Making a ‘hockey trade’ would make sense.