Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 Monday morning on the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jonathan Drouin.
“A lot of the GMs are overseas for the world junior tournament. I’ve been texting a couple – ‘What do you think?’ They’re saying the price is going to be high. I think they expect that. He’s still only 20 years old. He’s still a third overall pick. I spoke to one team yesterday that admitted that year, they had him ranked ahead of Nathan MacKinnon.
“I just feel that it’s going to be an expensive price. From what I can also tell, Tampa has looked at moving him in the past, and they’ve never found a deal that was close to what they wanted.”
Friedman on who will be interested …
“Well, the No. 1 thing I wonder is does Yzerman believe he has to send the kid West. Is that something he’s looking at, saying, ‘I don’t want this kid in the Eastern Conference making me look bad.’ So I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m curious about it.
“There’s two teams in the East that, to me, make sense. I just don’t know what they have to make a deal with. Because they’re teams that are going to be looking for a young player who can provide offense. And those teams are Carolina and New Jersey.”
…
“So it’s obvious they expect a lot in return. I think a lot of teams are going to be interested. I think he’s going to be a fit in a lot of places. The problem is are teams going to look at it and say, ‘Well, we’re trading for a guy who’s got 40 points in 89 games’ as you point out, and hasn’t really been used that much, or are they going to be realistic and see that there is a 20-year-old here with a lot of potential and Tampa is not just going to give him away.
“I think everyone is going to be interested. I just don’t know – If Tampa is going to say, ‘We want something that says you’re getting a third overall pick from two years ago’ – I don’t know how many teams are going to have the ability to make that deal.”