Pierre LeBrun: There have been teams calling the Florida Panthers about pending unrestricted free agent goaltender Chris Driedger. They could be getting a jump on talks by acquiring his rights.
There is also the expansion draft to consider. Will the Kraken be interested?
TSN: Pierre LeBrun on That’s Hockey when asked about Florida Panthers trading the rights to pending UFA goaltender Chris Driedger.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“Well, they are getting calls on pending UFA netminder Chris Driedger whose such a great story as you remember this year but of course they’ve got a $10 million goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky and a future superstar in net potentially in first-round pick Spencer Knight who got his feet wet this past year.
So there is no room for Chris Driedger. He’s not staying in Florida. So teams are calling and saying, ‘what would it take to get his rights off your hands now so we can sort of jump the UFA market.’ There’s a lot of interest in Chris Driedger.
Here’s the complication. Maybe Florida does that. On the other hand, there’s the potential of Seattle perhaps having interest in Chris Driedger. And so does Florida actually sit back and let Seattle take him in the expansion draft, which means they don’t lose anyone else to Seattle.
So a lot for Florida to ponder here when it comes to UFA netminder Chris Driedger.”