Rumors III: Ducks, Stafford, Tarasenko, Blues and Bailey

“Yeah, I don’t look for immediate results whatsoever,” Murray said when we chatted last week. “I tell the coach to try and work everybody in, find the combinations and find the chemistry. Give it time.”

Murray on why he made all the changes.

“Watching our team play against certain other teams, I felt we couldn’t compete against enough teams in the NHL — West and East,” Murray said. “We just were having real struggles against certain type of teams; our whole hockey ops team noticed it. We’re more versatile now. We can play different games against different teams, which was the goal.”

There haven’t been any talks between the Jets and Drew Stafford according to a source. They’d like to keep him around long-term.

The Blues reached out to pending RFA Vladimir Tarasenko’s representatives about a contract extension earlier in the season, but Tarasenko didn’t want to start talks.

“Vladdy has been here a year and a half. Where’s the rush?” said his agent, Mike Liut, during a Sunday chat. “I’m not surprised by what’s happened. Doug’s not surprised. He’s always said a franchise player for them. They’ve always considered him that player. And he is.”

The Blues are open to doing a long-term deal with Tarasenko. John Tavares’s six-year, $5.5 million cap hit per year could be a comparable, but that may not be enough and he may not want to go as long as six-years. Patrick Kane’s second contract of five-years at $31.5 million might work.