Will the Canucks bring Tryamkin back after his KHL season?
Rick Dhaliwal: The Vancouver Canucks hope to sign first-round pick Vasily Podkolzin after his KHL season.
The Canucks weren’t willing to sign 26-year old defenseman Nikita Tryamkin last year as they weren’t willing to give him a one-way deal. His KHL season this year could be over in mid-March.
His agent, Todd Diamond, wasn’t happy last year when he didn’t get a contract last as he felt it was the right time to return. The Canucks waited until July 14th to tell Tryamkin’s camp they wouldn’t be signing him for this season.
Tryamkin wants to play in the NHL. He’s an RFA and is one-year away from being a UFA.
Rick Dhaliwal: Diamond on Tryamkin: “Nikita is focused on his play in the KHL, Nikita’s future in the NHL will take care of itself. The Canucks had an opportunity to sign Nikita last year, Nikita patiently waited and unfortunately the Canucks let it pass.”
Penguins looking at the trade market
TSN: Darren Dreger said that Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is checking out the trade market for a defenseman.
“He’s looking for a defenceman and part of that is through urgency and necessity and the fact he’s already experienced injuries to the Pittsburgh Penguins blueline. But you’re right, Jimmy Rutherford historically, traditionally, has always tried to get his shopping out of the way early. He’s in the market for the best available defenceman but, in reality, he knows that he’s going to have to settle for a third-pairing defenceman. He’s definitely in the market looking for some help.”
Some coaches are still not getting full pay
TSN: Frank Seravalli notes that there are still some NHL coaching staffs that are not getting their full pay, even after the 2020-21 season has started – upwards of seven teams.
“A team like the Edmonton Oilers, for instance, their three highest-paid coaches have agreed to a 25 per cent salary deferral for this season which will be eventually repaid once fans can get back in arenas and revenues can normalize a bit. Look, there’s a lot of unhappy coaches around the league – both coaches whose pay has been cut, and coaches at full pay – they’d like to see a level playing field. But to this point, there has not been a formal complaint levied to the NHL to our knowledge and my guess, James, is even if there was – it’s not something the NHL would want to dip their toe into the water on given the fact that these are individually negotiated employment contracts between coach and team. So we’ll see where this goes, but there’s certainly some unhappy coaches out there.”