Maple Leafs and Gardiner thinking long-term?
Terry Koshan: Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on Jake Gardiner’s pending unrestricted free agency after this season: “We look forward to getting Jake signed and him being a Leaf for a long time.”
Mike Zeisberger: Gardiner on being in the last year of his contract: “I’d definitely want to come back here.”
Trade speculation could follow three Islanders forwards
Andrew Gross of Newsday: Forwards Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle are entering the final year of their deals.
Brock Nelson, who signed a one-year this offseason, could find himself in trade speculation along with Lee and Eberle.
The Islanders brought defenseman Luca Sbisa to training camp on a PTO. GM Lou Lamoriello told Sbisa if things work out well it could be long-term.
“He was pretty straightforward,” Sbisa said. “He said I’d have a pretty good chance to make our team and help our team not just now but long term.”
Shero on trade talks
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero when asked about any trade talks.
“There’s always a lot after free agency, but then it really died down, which tends to be the case. Now there is maybe a little bit, but it really is probably another two weeks because then teams have exhibition games and get to see some younger players or maybe some injuries pop up, some younger player jumps up and makes another player expendable. We have to get the preseason going here first for much of that to happen. If that’s the case, we’re in a position to try and improve our team if that comes around. You never know, it could be tomorrow. It takes a couple weeks, 10 days for teams to really get their exhibition games going and make some roster decisions, some cuts. So we’ll see what happens.”