The Fourth Period: David Pagnotta on the Latest on the San Jose Sharks and who they make available ahead of the March 7th NHL trade deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersson: “Well, one rumor we can put to bed completely, Sidney Crosby is not going anywhere. Sorry Biz, I hate to crush your dreams, but Sid said to the reporters, he said he’s tired of asking, or excuse me, answering questions. He is staying put.
But some other players that could be on the move, Michael Bunting, Drew O’Connor, Erik Karlsson, Marcus Pettersson. What about Brian Rust? Are they taking calls on him?
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Pagnotta: “Everybody you mentioned, they’re all available. Pittsburgh is willing to listen on all of those guys, plus everybody else, pretty much on that roster. Anthony Beauvillier, like Drew Connor, pending unrestricted free agents.
Bryan Rust has term. He has a decent cap hit, pretty attractive one for what he brings to the table. But he also has a no-movement clause. My understanding is they still haven’t approached him about it, but he would be open to options if the Pittsburgh Penguins push that narrative that they want to make a move from that side of things. Erik Karlsson, kind of in that same position.
So Pittsburgh is looking. Now, teams that are, there are teams that are looking to bring in somebody in their top-six, perhaps at the first or second line from an offensive perspective. He’s a right shot. He plays, he can play very well with top-tier athletes, as we’ve seen. He compliments, you know, guys like Gino and Sid very well. We’re going to see kind of what options are available to them.
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But another team behind me who plays later today, we’ll see Drew Doughty make his NHL debut. LA is looking a right-shot forward to help their power play and to help their offense overall. They’ve struggled quite a bit recently. That would take a lot of maneuvering, because LA now with Drew back, does not have any cap space. It’ll take a lot of creativity, but if Bryan Rust is fully available, LA is, that’s the type of player LA is looking for. That would be an interesting fit there, but there are going to be other teams that certainly would have interest in Bryan Rust that will have those conversations between now and March 7th.”
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