On the Avalanche …
- Mike Johnston of Sportsnet: Elliotte Freidman said that teams are waiting to see what the Avalanche decide to do with pending RFA Tyson Barrie. If the Avalanche can’t get him signed to a contract extension, can expect his name to hit the rumor mill as teams are interested.
- Senators Patrick Weircioch was a healthy scratch the other night. Last season, the Senators and Avalanche were close to a deal, but it doesn’t sound like that is on the front burner this year.
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Freidman on Sportnet 960 on the Avalanche trade front.
“Yeah, I definitely think there’s something going on there. It’s difficult for me to figure out for a second there – I do think part of it was Joe Sakic letting his team know that if this Eastern road trip went badly, changes would be coming. Part of it was to light a fire under the team. It certainly has worked a little bit. They won their three games on their road trip coming into Toronto, where they play tomorrow night.
“But one thing I kind of did realize was that if Colorado is going to trade somebody, the name that a lot of teams want to talk about is Tyson Barrie. Now I don’t think Colorado is there yet. But he’s a restricted free agent at the end of the season with arb rights, and some teams can see how this might end up being a problem for the Avalanche.
“So he’s the name to watch in the sense of how do their contract talks go with him. I don’t think they’ve gone very far, and if they don’t go well I could see Barrie being a guy that teams say, ‘Alright, what’s it going to take to do this.’
On the Leafs and Avalanche …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Freidman on Avalanche and Maple Leafs.
“The other thing I kind of got a bit of a handle on yesterday was I think for a little while before they traded Ryan O’Reilly, the Maple Leafs and the Avalanche talked about an O’Reilly for Jake Gardiner-type deal with other parts, but they could never get it done.
“So I don’t know if that’s something the Avalanche will try to revisit or not – and the Maple Leafs will try to revisit. I’ve got no evidence that they have. I don’t know if there’s anything like that, but I know that that’s a player that Colorado’s had some interest in the past.”