On the Carolina Hurricanes …
- Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer: Eric Staal admitted that his contract situation with the Carolina Hurricanes has weighed on him more than he’s let on at times. The trade deadline is seven weeks away, so a resolution will be coming soon.
“It’s been more challenging than I thought it would be, but I’m doing my best,” Staal said. “Doing my best to contribute and try and help this team win and play hard. I have a family. There’s things you think about. My brother’s playing here. There are a lot of different things you think about. You try not to worry about it too much, and play, and hopefully we can get on a little bit of a run here and go from there and let it sort itself out. We’ll see what happens.”
Heading into last night the Hurricanes were four points out of a playoff spot, but with five teams ahead of them.
On the Boston Bruins …
- Boston CBS Local: Joe Haggerty on Toucher & Rich radio show this morning on if the Bruins will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline.
“There are a lot of different teams in this situation where they could be both buyers and sellers. The position they’re in right now, they’re in a good position to make the playoffs barring anything crazy or unforeseen happening if they can play at a pretty decent level and this is just a blip on the radar,” said Haggerty.
“They need to get a defenseman, a top four guy, and I think they want to do that. The problem is there are about 10 other teams that want to do that as well,” he said. “Some teams have done that; the Seth Jones trade was big for Columbus because they’ve been looking at that kind of guy for several years now.”
Winger Loui Eriksson will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. If the Bruins don’t sign him to a contract extension before the trade deadline, Haggerty thinks the Bruins could look to move him.
“That’s where they come in as sellers as well; they want a defenseman and maybe another forward, but they have to make a decision with Loui Eriksson if they can’t sign him before the deadline. Maybe he gets moved in a deal like that to bring back a defenseman,” he said.
“But everything the Bruins do is with an eye towards making the playoffs, and there is a push to get in the postseason now,” added Haggs. “It’s not going to be them selling everything off and starting from scratch. They want to do what they can do to improve this year’s team and rebuild and reload on the fly.”