Toffoli’s camp open to talking with the Canucks
Rick Dhaliwal: Pat Brisson, the agent for Vancouver Canucks pending unrestricted free agent forward Tyler Toffoli: “Tyler was a strong addition to the Canucks at the deadline. He loved the city, the team and enjoyed his time in Vancouver. I will be open to have discussions with Jim Benning at the appropriate time.“
Predators Granlund will test free agency. Trenin could head back to the KHL
Adam Vingan of The Athletic: Nashville Predators pending UFA forward Mikael Granlund will be testing out free agency according to his agent Todd Diamond.
“We will be seeing what the open market has to offer,” Diamond said Monday.
Diamond when asked if they’d consider re-signing with the Predators before free agency opened.
“We will not re-sign before free agency begins.”
Predators forward Yakov Trenin could be considering a move to the KHL as his agent tweeted Trenin holding a SKA jersey. His agent, Shumi Babayev, did say on Friday that a deal hasn’t been signed yet but is possible. The Predators would need to qualify him to retain his rights.
The Oilers will be in the market for a goaltender … Trade Talk to pick up at the end of the month
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: The Edmonton Oilers will be looking to add a goaltender to help lessen the load with a compressed schedule coming in 2020-21.
The Oilers have Mikko Koskinen at $4.5 million for two more years. They have likely kicked tires on Penguins Matt Murray. A UFA in the $2.5 million range is who they will be looking at, someone to play 35 to 40 games.
The Oilers will have about $9 million in salary cap space with RFAs Ethan Bear, Matt Benning and Andreas Athanasiou, UFAs in Riley Sheahan, Tyler Ennis and Mike Smith.
“We’re in the same boat as two-thirds of the league. We don’t have a lot of cap space. Yeah, it’s pretty much dollar-in, dollar-out (in a trade) and there’s teams in a tighter spot than we are,” said Holland.
“We’ve got to make some decisions on our restricted free-agents to qualify them or not,” said Holland, who probably isn’t crazy about Athanasiou’s $3 million salary, not with two points in 13 games, including the playoffs after the Detroit trade.”
Oilers GM Ken Holland adds that trade talk will pick up in late September.
“This year, the chatter will pick up in late September (before the Oct. 8-9 draft). Stuff will get done in October.”