On the New York Rangers …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 radio on Wednesday on the New York Rangers interest in Jonathan Drouin.
“Yeah, I would say it’s significant. It’s significant. Now, whether or not there’s a deal to be made is another thing and I don’t believe that the Rangers have a full grasp on what the asking price is. But I was working on this yesterday as well and they do have some interest.
“You see a potential elite forward – and he hasn’t proven he can be that yet – but most believe he can certainly be a top-6. He’s playing in the American Hockey League. He’s requested a trade. Publically, that’s going to grab the attention of a lot of NHL GMs.
“The Rangers and Lightning obviously have trade history with Marty St. Louis coming to the Rangers. That was a tough deal for Yzerman to have to make. This one wouldn’t be as tough.
“But I can tell you this much – Jeff Gorton, the general manager of the Rangers – is going to have stiff competition for Jonathan Drouin.”
On Jonathan Drouin …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 on Jonathan Drouin.
“There’s a lot of teams – I can count more than a dozen teams that have varying degrees of interest in Drouin. I mean, I could say the same thing about the Ottawa Senators. The Ottawa Senators aggressivelywould like to get Jonathan Drouin, and I don’t think they’re getting off the mark with the Tampa Bay Lightning any more than the Montreal Canadiens will.
“Now, I could be wrong on that. Here’s the thing. In order for a team like the Montreal Canadiens or the Ottawa Senators – who both could use Jonathan Drouin – in order for them to get Tampa to trade them that player within the division… In other words, Tampa is going to see Jonathan Drouin coming into their building playoffs, you name it – it’s going to be constant. In order for Tampa to live with the prospect of that, the offer that Montreal or Ottawa or any team within the Atlantic Division would have to come up with would have to be light years better than anybody else.
“And when Jonathan Drouin gets traded, I firmly believe that it’s much more likely – not 100 percent guaranteed – but much more likely to be in the Western Conference than the Eastern Conference.
“But we’ll see. Anything is possible. But as I said, I’d say that Anaheim, or St. Louis – I was going to Nashville, but they’ve kind of taken care of their business in terms of the Johansen for Jones trade, so that takes them out – but Winnipeg, and there are some other teams in the Western Conference that have a surplus of defensemen that would work well as a fit with Tampa for Drouin. So we’ll see what happens here.
On the Montreal Canadiens …
- Chris Nichols: Pierre LeBrun on Drouin: “Have the #Habs talked to #TBLightning? I believe they have. Aggressive? I don’t know how to gauge that.”