- Darren Dreger: The Avalanche will meet with UFA defenseman Jan Hejda’s agent at the draft. He will draw some interest if he hits the open market.
- Wayne Scanlan: The Senators met with Mark Stone’s agent yesterday. Contract talks are progressing, but Stone said that there is “no rush” to get a deal done.
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 on available players.
“Obviously the St. Louis guys are out there. Patrick Sharp is a guy that I really think you’re going to start seeing Stan Bowman today start to see who’s interested. Sharp has some control over this. Milan Lucic. Jeff Skinner. I think those are the names you’re going to start to hear. Phil Kessel. I’m getting real splits on Dion Phaneuf. I have one guy telling me he thinks Phaneuf is getting traded. I got another guy saying he thinks it’s more likely Mike Babcock wants Phaneuf to stay.
“I mean, Jonas Hiller. I’ve said before on your station I believe they will try and – and Jiri Hudler too. I’m sitting here and looking at Pittsburgh and saying this is a team that wants a winger to play with Malkin and Crosby. I’m wondering if Hudler might the kind of fit that Pittsburgh is looking for.
“I think the easier question to ask right now is who’s not available, because it seems as if every guy could potentially be available.”
On Karri Ramo interest if the Wild re-sign Devan Dubnyk.
“Yeah, I could see Edmonton having a lot of interest in Ramo. I could see the possibility in that. I mean, that’s one of the things we’ve kind of heard, that if they don’t land Talbot that maybe Ramo is one of the guys they start to look at.”
- Alex Prewitt of the Washington Post: The Capitals best trade asset might be their No. 22 pick in this year’s draft. GM Brian MacLellan told ESPN that he planned on keeping the pick. Assist GM Ross Mahoney:
“That whole trading of picks, I think people always think amateur scouts might get upset with that,” Mahoney said. “You work all year to make the picks, but the ultimate goal here is we all want to win the Stanley Cup. If we can provide the general manager with the assets that he needs to make a trade to be able to put us over the hump, to make us be a legitimate contender, how do you say no to that?”
Trading the pick could still be an option for the Capitals.
“It always comes down to the next few days, when Mac starts getting phone calls from all the other GMs,” Mahoney said. “All of a sudden it really starts to pick up. You never know. We could lose a pick, or we could go into it and all of a sudden we’ve gained three picks. As an amateur scouting staff, we better be prepared, we’re picking 22 right now, what if something happens we’re picking 12 right now? We better be ready for that.”