Garrioch’s NHL rumor roundup involving the St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, Detroit Red Wings, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning …
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The St. Louis Blues have played themselves into a playoff spot after firing head coach Ken Hitchcock. It now makes GM Doug Armstrong’s decision with pending free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk a little trickier. The New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs are among the teams who have shown some interest in Shattenkirk.
The asking price is currently three pieces – a top prospect, a first round pick and another asset. Teams don’t want to pay that high a price for a rental. The Blues will do a sign and trade. One deal apparently fell through recently.
Shattenkirk is looking for around $7 million a season, which is too much for the Blues.
“They’re firmly in the playoffs … firmly,” another league executive said. “This is not an easy deal for Armstrong because they could trade their best player. Decisions like these are a lot more difficult when you’re a playoff team.”
Pierre LeBrun reported that Claude Julien‘s deal with the Montreal Canadiens is worth $25 million over five years, but it might be worth as much as $26.5 million.
The Canadiens may need to make a trade for a center.
Gerard Gallant may be the Vegas Golden Knights top coaching candidate. They’ve interviewed Jack Capuano and they did reach out to Julien.
The Detroit Red Wings may be ready to make some moves. Deals could include forwards Thomas Vanek and Tomas Jurco. The Wings want to shake things up. They have lots of players on long-term deals and could use some help on the blueline.
Dallas Stars forwards Patrick Sharp and Patrick Eaves are likely available.
There is no shortage of teams interested in Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene, but asking price is too high. The Canadiens have shown interest in both Landeskog and Duchene.
Jarome Iginla is the most likely Avalanche player to be dealt at the deadline.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to move out some players/money out. They have pending RFAs in Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. GM Steve Yzerman may be willing to sweeten the pot for a team to take players like Braydon Coburn ($3.7 million through 2018-19) and Jason Garrison ($4.7 million through next year).
Pending free agent Brian Boyle will likely be traded.