- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Coyotes GM Don Maloney is calling it a “reset.” In the past…
“It was like, ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just try and eke out whatever we can eke out and try to get to the playoffs,'” Maloney said. “Now what’s happened with Andy and the group is, ‘Let’s take a step back. Let’s take the long-term view. How do we get to the place where the L.A. Kings are, or the Chicago Blackhawks or the Anaheim Ducks?’ A lot of that is being a little more patient; we’re going to have to work some younger people into our system.”
It may not take long to turn them around.
“I don’t see this as being a 10-year rebuild,” Maloney said. “I think we’re well positioned contractually in that we can help ourselves in the offseason. We’re hoping the Canadian dollar stays — I don’t wish that on Canada — but I hope it doesn’t go anywhere because the lower the cap is, the more it creates opportunities for us. Because right now, I know there’s a number of teams that are watching and saying, ‘Please go up, the cap,’ because they’re going to be in trouble.”
Antoine Vermette, Martin Erat, Zbynek Michalek and David Moss will all be available.
“Our agenda right now is to acquire young assets,” Maloney said. “The offseason is a whole different animal. We’ll have slots to fill and financial flexibility to fill them, but right now, we need the assets.”
Maloney on Keith Yandle.
“He’s always a name that comes up,” Maloney said. “Keith Yandle is a very important part on our team, and he’s a good player. He’s been a top offensive defenseman for the last five years in the league. I’m not actually out there shopping his name around at all, but people have talked to me about it. I’d like to build that base, not subtract from it. We don’t have enough Keith Yandles. That’s not to say if a deal comes along in the next week or the next month or at the draft … but he’s still a relatively young player that does something better than most players in the league.”
- Nichols on Hockey: Sabres GM Tim Murray on WGR 550 yesterday said that he’d be open to trading involving their two later first round picks (St. Louis and NY Islanders).
“At the end of the day, we’ll know that there are five teams or 10 teams or 15 teams – preferably for us 15 – that have some cap issues and need to trade away good players because they can’t keep all their good players. And we’ve seen it in the past with Stanley Cup winners.
“So a lot of that is out of our hands, but we talk about it a lot. We’ll be prepared for it. It’s probably not going to be at the deadline. I would suspect that would be more of a draft thing. Draft day or around that area of time.
“So there are a lot of different scenarios that I can see using those two picks on players in the draft and also using them to get good young players that are further along.”
Murray thinks there are some teams that are putting out feelers that they might be sellers. Adds that he thinks there will be a fair amount of trades that will go right down to the wire.
Bob McKenzie on TSN 1050 yesterday. The Maple Leafs will look to move Joffrey Lupul, though McKenzie isn’t sure what the market will be for him. He’s a good offensive player that has the size to play in the West. The problem with him is injuries.
