On the Pittsburgh Penguins … (before trade with Chicago last night)
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: LeBrun thinks that GM Jim Rutherford has another trade or two up his sleeve before the trade deadline. This may be their last shot at it. Their window may stay open for a few more years if it works out. They could have a dramatic offseason if it doesn’t.
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: There is a good chance that between now and the trade deadline, Rutherford will look to improve his blueline.
“Yes. One of the positives of late is that our defense has been more activated, it’s jumped in the play more,” Rutherford said over the phone Sunday. “Part of that is the maturity of Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta getting back, and the addition of Warsofsky, it’s given us more balance and more options on the back end as far as moving the puck and jumping into the play.
“But, I’m still looking at that area.”
The small increase in the salary cap this past year didn’t give teams a lot of extra space to make moves. As the season progresses, taking on salary becomes a little easier as less is owed.
“You have to get very creative now to make deals,” said Rutherford. “It’s not the old way where you just make a one-for-one hockey deal and that’s it. You just have to get real creative. Anyways, we’ll see what happens.”
The Oilers, Sabres, Avs and Blue Jackets are also among the teams looking for defensemen. The Predators and Blues are in position of strength with their depth.
On the Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Pierre LeBrun on TSN 1040 on the Panthers wanting a scorer, and if GM Dale Tallon would trade Dmitry Kulikov or Erik Gudbranson.
“That’s a tough call. I mean, Kulikov’s name was out there a bit last year. And then he got pulled back. There are so few teams with defensemen for sale. Nashville is one of them. They’re so stacked on the blueline, and they happen to be a team that needs a top-six injection, I think, up front, if the Predators are going to be more serious about contending. So they’ll be in an interesting position closer to February 29th, where I think they can do something.
On the Blues having depth on the blueline.
“I feel that way about the Blues too. When St. Louis is healthy, they’ve got pretty good depth on the blueline. They own the rights to Wellman too. So they’ve got a lot going on with their blueline. And I think the Blues, too, could use that kind of move to fortify their forward group when all is said and done closer to the deadline. So they’ll be in a good position of strength, both the Blues and the Predators, because they’ll be the reverse of what the rest of the league is doing – which is looking for a defenseman.”