On the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes …
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: Roman Polak should bring the Maple Leafs a greater return than P.A. Parenteau, Michael Grabner and Shawn Matthias. Teams are calling the Leafs about Polak, with the San Jose Sharks as one team that could be a good fit.
Renaud Lavoie on the Sportsnet 590 on the Montreal Canadiens.
“I think the Montreal Canadiens are going to be sellers by the end of the month,” TVA’s Renaud Lavoie told Jeff Blair on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Thursday. “I don’t expect Andrei Markov to be traded as of right now. Could change in a week. There are some guys that are going to be moved.
“All the UFAs—Tom Gilbert, Dale Weise, maybe Tomas Fleischmann—those guys are going to be traded.”
Canucks GM Jim Benning said improving their blueline won’t be an easy thing to do.
“Good defencemen are hard to come by, and there’s a premium on top-four defencemen. You have to draft and develop them yourselves, that’s what it seems to me,” Benning said. “There are some guys in free agency this summer that we could take a look at, which includes re-signing Dan.”
Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett was on Hockey Central at Noon on Wednesday and said they were going to stick with their plan to draft, develop, rebuild. Don’t expect the Coyotes to stock up on rental players at the deadline for their playoff run.
On the San Jose Sharks …
Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area: (mailbag) The Sharks currently have about $3.43 million in cap space. Kurz thinks the Sharks could use another depth forward and need to search the trade market before recalling Raffi Torres.
Kurz thinks the Sharks could use another left winger, a more reliable backup goalie and a depth defenseman.
The Sharks could use some more physicality. Kurz wonders about the Sharks looking at right-handed, physical defenseman in Roman Polak. Polak could slide into their third pairing with Brenden Dillon.
Kurz thinks a Patrick Marleau trade is more likely to happen in the offseason. Would be hard to get equal value for Marleau now as a contending team would have to give up a key piece off their roster.