On the Vegas Golden Knights, St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres and the KHL …
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee will likely interview Jack Capuano for their head coaching position. Ken Hitchcock, Gerard Gallant and Kirk Muller will likely get interviews as well.
There has been some trade talk involving St. Louis Blues pending UFA Patrik Berglund.
It’s looking like the Tampa Bay Lightning could trade goalie Ben Bishop before the deadline. Would give Bishop a fresh start, and Andrei Vasilevskiy full No. 1 status. The current offers for Bishop appear to be low.
Sportsnet’s Eric Engels mentioned during the Sabres-Canadiens game that defenseman Dmitry Kulikov could be available.
One GM on Tuesday night ….
“Someone is going to set the trade market. Not every GM feels they can wait. There are guys who like to go early, and one of them will.”
The KHL is getting scouted more than usual as the league is considering shrinking the number of teams. It would cost millions for someone to bring Evgeny Dadonov and/or Vadim Shipachov over.
On Who Could Use New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak …
Matt Larkin of The Hockey News: Looking at teams that should consider trading for Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak. Halak carries a $3.55 million salary cap hit (AHL) through next season, ($4.5 million NHL cap hit). Since clearing waivers and being sent to the AHL, he as a 6-1-1 record with a 2.03 GAA and .927 save percentage.
St. Louis Blues – Played for the Blues before. The Blues have Carter Hutton as a backup, so he might have to go the other way, but the Islanders don’t need a goalie.
Philadelphia Flyers – Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth are pending UFAs and both have had disappointing seasons. Islanders would have to take back one of Mason or Neuvirth.
Dallas Stars – Halak wouldn’t be a massive improvement of Kari Lehtonen or Antti Niemi, the one of those big contracts would have to go back to the Islanders. The Islanders wouldn’t want one of those contracts.
Los Angeles Kings – Sleeper regarding Halak. Would take setback in Jonathan Quick‘s recovery and a major collapse from Peter Budaj.
