On the Ottawa Senators …
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Senators haven’t been actively shopping anyone, but teams are calling GM Pierre Dorion.
Talk is that no less than 10 teams are looking for forwards, an area in which the Senators have some depth they could move.
The San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks are among the teams that are said to be looking for forwards.
Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Ryan Dzingel and Derick Brassard have all had their name come up in the rumor mill.
The Sens have also received some calls on defenseman Cody Ceci.
The Sens have already said that Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone are not available. would be surprised if they moved any of Pageau, Dzingel, and Brassard.
Devils GM Ray Shero is believed to be looking for scoring help before the trade deadline. Hoffman to the Devils might make sense, but it’s not known if they are on his 10-team no-trade list. The Devils do have a first-round pick this year and would need to add a prospect. Pavel Zacha would likely be brought, but the Devils may not want to go there.
TSN: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 on big-name players looking to test the free agent market out, putting off negotiations instead of rejecting an in-season offer – John Tavares and to an extent Steven Stamkos. Not sure if we’ll see that next with the likes of Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson or Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
“And even then there’s a different dynamic because this summer – if the Ottawa Senators make Erik Karlsson a mega-offer this summer and he just turns his nose up at it, this scenario may not play out because they’ll know if he rejects it that he may not be signing here. And if he’s not going to sign here, we can’t let this guy walk and lose him for nothing. So that scenario sort of circumvents the Tavares/Stamkos situation where the player is so good and you’re so confident or you like to think you’re so confident you’re going to sign him back that the trade is not even an option.”