On the Vancouver Canucks …
- The Fourth Period: If the Canucks are out of the playoff race by the trade deadline, they may look to move some of their pending free agents for draft picks and prospects. Pending unrestricted free agents include Radim Vrbata, Brandon Prust, Dan Hamhuis, Yannick Weber and Matt Bartkowski. Vrbata and Hamhuis have full no-trade clauses. Hamhuis is out until early February at the earliest with a concussion and recovery from facial surgery.
On the Los Angeles Kings …
- The Fourth Period: Once the Kings are able to sign Anze Kopitar to a contract extension, they’ll then turn to Milan Lucic. The Kings want to sign Lucic to an extension well before the start of free agency.Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson will also need new deals for next year, so the Kings may be forced to move out a roster player before the start of next season.Kings GM Dean Lombardi is expected add to their roster before the trade deadline as they take another run at the Cup.A source close to the team said that Lucic wants to re-sign if given the right deal. There was speculation that Lucic could look to sign with Vancouver, but his priority now may be to remain in LA.
On the Columbus Blue Jackets …
- Aaron Portzline: Spoke with GM Jarmo Kekalainen and got the sense that they are nowhere near a trade, despite the desire to give the roster a jolt.
On the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 saying that he thought the Canadiens and Oilers may have been talking about a bigger trade than the Ben Scrivens for Zack Kassian trade they made.
“It was tough because there were a lot of moving parts. For awhile I was wondering if it was actually a bigger deal. Obviously it turned out not to be. I think the Canadiens and Oilers had discussed something bigger.”
Friedman added that Peter Chiarelli almost traded for Kassian when he was the GM of the Bruins, but decided against it.
“It’s interesting because their AHL team is kind of struggling and all of their best young players are up in the NHL. And I do think that one of the things Montreal looked at was they didn’t want Kassian around their kids, just in case. So I don’t think that really hurts them in Edmonton and if he doesn’t perform well or he doesn’t stay clean, he’s not going up to the Oilers anyway.”