The Vancouver Canucks won’t pay to move a player
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts.
“So I think what the Canucks’ve realized is, they don’t want to trade away first-round picks. They don’t want to trade away any other picks really. They really want to get back the second-rounder they traded to Chicago in the Jason Dickinson deal.
They don’t want to move away players who they are going to have to incentivize people to move.
And again, it’s not a teardown, but I think what they’re willing to do is move a core player, at least one, to say, okay, maybe we can do it this way. And they’ve told people that’s not Pettersson and my first question was: wait a second, Hughes? And what people said to me was the Canucks just said, look, it’s not something we’re looking to do.
I just think that if you are interested in him, it’s going to take an enormous offer to get him out of there. But I just don’t think he’s untouchable like Pettersson appears to be.
But I think what this says to me is that the Canucks know if they’re going to switch around their mix a bit and breathe new life into their roster. They can’t just make cap dump deals without incentivizing people.”
Teams are scouting the Montreal Canadiens, who will have some decisions to make
Montreal Hockey Now: The Montreal Canadiens had two scouts watching the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers on Monday. Billy Ryan was one of the scouts and he was previously with the Panthers.
The Ottawa Senators recently sent five staff to watch a Canadiens game.
Josh Anderson and Sean Monahan could interest teams, but the Canadiens aren’t in a rush to move either.
Marco D’Amico of Montreal Hockey Now: The emergence of four Montreal Canadiens young defensemen in Kaiden Guhle, Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris and Jonathan Kovacevic, coupled with the high cost to acquire a top-four defenseman will create some decisions for GM Kent Hughes.
Will he want to move some veterans and take advantage of the higher prices?
Scouts have been keeping an eye on the Canadiens of late. It’s been confirmed that the Edmonton Oilers are interested in Joel Edmundson.
The Canadiens have been looking to add a third first-round pick.