NHL Tonight: David Pagnotta was asked about the Winnipeg Jets and what moves they could be looking to make before the NHL trade deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jameson Coyle: “Speaking of making pushes, let’s head out west. The Jets have been off to a great start this season. Do you see this team making any big moves between now and the trade deadline coming up in a couple of months?
Pagnotta: “Well, yeah, you talking about big pushes. I mean, Jamo, this team, we may wake up tomorrow morning. They may be first in the National Hockey League. If they put out pull out a W tonight. This is a team that is very deep. They like the way that they’re structured. They like the system that they have in place. They’ve got some cap space and they’re accruing more cap space as the days progress.
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Going into the season. We’re kind of looking and there was some word that maybe they would address the blue line, maybe a guy like Chris Tanev, out of Calgary would be on their radar, but with that structure that I mentioned with how they’re playing defensively and with the All-Star performance and Connor Hellebuyck behind them, they may shift the focus a little bit or at least veer in the direction of a second line center.
And this could be a scenario where you’re kind of looking at this team, they’ve got some good young players in the system. One guy just won gold medal. You guys were talking about earlier for Team USA at the World Juniors. So they’ve got a deep cover. They’ve got some assets that they could potentially move out as well.
Don’t be surprised if maybe Tanev’s teammate Elias Lindholm is the guy that they looked at, get a little more involved in. There’s some interest right now. Obviously, Lindholm is going to be a guy that a lot of teams are going to look at going into the deadline. Everybody kind of knows what he’s looking for as well and an extension – $9 million-plus. So that kind of takes that element of surprise out of it. And if this does become a guy that the target and really strongly pursues beyond their interest levels now, looks like more of a rental scenario for them and perhaps any other team that gets in the mix.
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But I wouldn’t be surprised to see, especially if they remain in the hunt, come a month from now we want to back jets to be active and looking at that 2C position.”