- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings are exploring trade and rating pending free agents. They are expected to have between $10 to $12 million in cap space after re-signing restricted free agents Danny DeKeyser, Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar. They’ll be looking to add a top-four defenseman and top-six forward. GM Ken Holland said yesterday that he has spoken with a few teams about potential trades, and more could happen at next weeks’ GM meetings.
“I’m moving along slow to keep our options open,” Holland said. “We’ll see what’s out there via trade. But we feel good about our team, and our fallback position is our kids.
“We’re trying to move kids in, and also have the right amount of vets.”
- Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province: The Canucks may be giving Ryan Kesler some indication this week who they might be hiring as their next coach could be. He wouldn’t withdraw his trade request, which he’s still denying he made, without knowing who the coach could be. He’s butted heads with the past two. They could look to bring in a high-profile free agent to play with Kesler if he stays. The Canucks will have to decide on a whether to use a compliance buyout on someone or not. Buyout candidates include: David Booth, and long-shots Jason Garrison and Alex Burrows. New GM Jim Benning may explore if players who hold no-trade clauses would be interested in exploring other options. The Canucks will need to decide if/what they want to offer pending free agent Mike Santorelli. RFAs Chris Tanev and Zack Kassian will need to be re-signed.
- David Staples of the Edmonton Journal: Would the Oilers be interested in trading for Penguins defenseman Kris Letang? There is the health concern and the cost to acquire him. The Oilers would have to trade someone like Justin Schultz or Jeff Petry. Others that might be included could be: Sam Gagner, David Perron and Nail Yakupov.
- Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Teams have let James Neal’s agent know that they would be interested in trading for him whenever the Penguins hire a new GM.
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Senators had talked to the Sabres about Chris Stewart, but the Sabres were asking for one of the Senators top prospects, including Curtis Lazar.