Scouting the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators
Dean Brown: Scouts listed to attend last night’s Maple Leafs-Senators game: Colorado Avalanche (2), New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Oilers will need to clear some cap space to activate Sekera
Frank Seravalli: When the Edmonton Oilers activate Andrej Sekera from the LTIR after his AHL conditioning stint, they will need to clear out some salary.
If they are not able to gain the cap space through a trade, they can waive defensemen Brandon Manning and Alex Petrovic and send them to the AHL if they clear waivers.
These moves would clear enough space and would essentially undo Peter Chiarelli’s last two trades when he was their GM.
Standing slowing down the trade market
AP in the Toronto Sun: The playoff races are tight right now, and it’s slowing the trade market down. It appears to be a buyers market, but there are teams in the wait-and-see mode.
“We’ll know better by Feb. 25 where we’re at,” said Florida GM Dale Tallon, whose team is 11 points out. “We’ll go game by game and week by week, and then we’ll decide before the deadline what we’re going to do. Performance will dictate what we do.”
The Panthers already made a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins but could be eyeing Columbus Blue Jackets Artemi Panarin and/or Sergei Bobrovsky.
Players who could be available ahead of the February 25th trade deadline: Panarin, Bobrovsky, Matt Duchene, Mark Stone, Wayne Simmonds, Micheal Ferland, Cam Talbot, and Jimmy Howard.
“Sometimes it drags out a little bit,” Washington GM Brian MacLellan said. “I think people get frustrated with it, but people are trying to get full value for things they perceive need to be getting full value (for), and it takes it to the end to figure out what is the actual value.”
Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher said they could be both buyers and sellers.
Los Angeles Kings GM Rob Blake said they are looking into a lot of different options. The could make Carl Hagelin, Jeff Carter and Alec Martinez available.