- Hope Smoke: Nick Kypreos: “That back end in Philly is just not good enough & Hextall needs to address that. He can try to be patient & draft a few more kids” … “I don’t know how patient Hextall can be when he has an owner who is over 80 years old” … “Wonder if the Flyers will call Edmonton and see if they can get Justin Schultz who may have fallen out of favour there”
- Hope Smoke: Bob McKenzie: “There’s no question MacTavish is talking to teams. The Anisimov for Perron deal has cooled off. CBJ have moved on to other things” … “the Oilers are looking for a goalie and a centre. They won’t turn down a D, but I think they like what they have on paper there”
- Nichols on Hockey: Darren Dreger: Patrik Berglund is player the Oilers would like. The Blues are not interested in getting David Perron back. Oilers are also eyeing Flyers Brayden Schenn. The question is, is there a fit between those teams. Dreger isn’t convinced the Flyers want to move Schenn. Not much coming from Winnipeg other than GM Kevin Cheveldayoff’s weekly tire-kicking. Many are paying attention to what the Maple Leafs are doing. The word “untouchable” doesn’t apply to Toronto either. This week could tell how things will go. There are not a lot of big names in play. The Flyers need to address their blueline.
- Nichols on Hockey: Pierre LeBrun on the Oilers, Jordan Eberle and David Perron.
“You know, it’s funny. We touched on this in Insider Trading… when I talk to other teams around the NHL, they’re waiting for the bigger fish to be put in the frying pan before they start taking Edmonton’s trade talk seriously. Namely Jordan Eberle. They want the big names out there.
“They’re not interested – no offense to David Perron, no offense to young Nail Yakupov. Until the Oilers – and maybe they’ll never be ready – but until they’re ready to put one of the big three guys into the fray, I’m not sure they’ll ever really entice that many teams or bring back tangible change to their roster.
“I mean, listen, David Perron is a nice, secondary player. But you’re not going to get a top centre for him. Who’s kidding who here? So, I mean, that’s interesting. And again, that’s not even – well, I guess it is my opinion, but this is what other teams are telling me, that if they call and put Eberle in play, ‘Now we’re talking. Now we’re talking turkey.’
“So that’s an interesting, I think, internal debate for Oilers management there. Of course you don’t want to trade Eberle because that’s the guy you’re building around. But you know what? If you’re really trying to bring meaningful change, you’ll probably going to have to trade one of the kids you don’t want to trade because that’s exactly one of the kids that other teams want.”
