Aaron Portzline via twitter: “Have it on good authority Flyers James van Riemsdyk would be more than willing to come to #CBJ if such a trade came to pass.”
Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: The only way to improve the Maple Leafs is through the trade route. Burke has no desire to trade Jake Gardiner. Players who aren’t going anywhere are: Dion Phaneuf, Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, John-Michael Liles and James Reimer. Rumors will likely surround Luke Schenn until he’s actually traded. Matthew Lombardi, Clarke MacArthur and Colby Armstrong all carry a $3 million cap hit or more, and could help a team get to the salary floor. Tim Connolly carries a $4.5 million cap hit. Clubs may find Tyler Bozak and his $1.5 million salary attractive, though Burke may not want to move him. Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson could be moved to make room for Korbinian Holzer. Nikolai Kulemin, Matt Frattin and Cody Franson are due qualifying offers by Monday.
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Jaromir Jagr interested the Red Wings last season, and will likely interest them again this year. They offered him $2.5 million last year before he signed for $3.3 million with the Flyers. The Wings want to add a top 6 forward, and if they can’t land Zach Parise, Jagr could be part of their backup plan. The Red Wings would like to re-sign Jiri Hudler, but he may test free agency.
Damian Cristodero of the Tampa Bay Times: If Lightning GM Steve Yzerman is going trade one of his 1st round draft picks, it’s likely to be the 19th overall and not the 10th pick, but “I think it’s more likely we use both picks.” Publicly Yzerman’s philosophy has been to draft the best player available, but the 1st round is defenseman heavily and their organizational depth is shallow along the blueline. Yzerman said they are “not necessarily” targeting a defenseman.
“It is not a position where we have a lot of guys coming up,” he said. “But all things being equal, we’re going to pick the best player available with the picks that we have.”
Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press: Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec has a 1 year offer worth more than $5 million from St. Petersburg of the KHL. Pavelec reportedly is looking for a 4 year deal worth around $4 million per season. The Jets may be thinking something lower or he may have been re-signed by now. If the Jets don’t want to pay to keep him and decide to look at the trade market, the Maple Leafs would likely be interested, with the Blue Jackets not far behind. Evander Kane’s agent said on Tuesday that there is no truth to the rumor that Kane doesn’t want to re-sign with the Jets, and some talks could happen this weekend.
George Malik via twitter: Sports.ru is reporting that Vityaz Chekhov wasn’t successful in bidding for Alexei Kovalev.
Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said he’s keeping an eye on the Rick Nash discussions.
“(Trade talk) ramps up right now because the draft picks available on Friday and Saturday,” he said.
“Specifically to this year, it’s a function of a shallow pool of free agents. You’ve got teams that may not delve into free agency that are trying to be proactive. They’re trying to acquire guys prior to free agency, because when the pool is shallow, prices get pretty high.”
Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren on James van Riemsdyk:
“I just assumed, when we made the announcement at the end of the year, that’s the way we were going to go,” Holmgren explained Monday. “And after [consulting doctors], we decided to go the way we’re going now. We wanted what’s best for James. There’s an area of concern [in the hip] that’s been identified and we’re just going to move forward right now and deal with it.”
After a press conference on Monday, Holmgren said that van Riemsdyk has a “tremendous future” and then added “He’s our player?…?right now.” The Flyers are said to be in on Nash, with names often mentioned going to Columbus are van Riemsdyk, Sean Couturier, Sergei Bobrovsky and maybe the Flyers 1st round pick. Seravalli thinks Nash’s contract ($7.8 million till 2018) is a risky proposition. Seravalli thinks the Flyers would be better served to go after Bobby Ryan.
Bob McKenzie via twitter: McKenzie’s take on the Jordan Staal situation: “PIT doesn’t want to trade him, wants to sign him and may make him a long-term (7 to 10 yrs maybe?) offer.” … “At that point, it would be up to Staal to commit long term to Pens or not sign. If it’s not, PIT would have to explore trade options.” … “IF outcome is trading Staal, PIT’s return/field of teams SEVERELY limited by fact Staal 1 yr from UFA. No team pays big for 1 yr rental.”
Renaud Lavoie via twitter: Sources in New York are saying that it appears P.A. Parenteau is headed to free agency.
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Brian Burke on keeping 5th overall pick,
“I fully expect that,” Burke told ESPN.com. “We’ve had discussions with other teams that I would characterize mostly as tire kicking, nothing that we’ve had to even huddle on. Now, the way the draft works, the time frame gets very compressed as you get closer. So it’ll crank right up. Teams who haven’t even called me, I expect will call starting tomorrow. But I fully expect to keep that pick.”
Burke on if they can’t land a goalie,
“We are prepared to go forward on that basis,” Burke said. “If we can upgrade at the goaltending position, and at a reasonable price, we’ll do it. But we are prepared [to go with Reimer-Scrivens]. I believe in James Reimer. He’s young, he’s athletic, I believe in this kid. If we have to start like that, we will.”
Sabres GM Darcy Regier on if dangling picks to make a trade,
“We’d like to,” GM Darcy Regier told ESPN.com on Wednesday morning. “We view it as an opportunity because of the additional first-round pick and the additional second-round pick. We’ve got some flexibility. So we’re approaching this as, ‘Let’s see if we can find some opportunities with this flexibility.’ Right now, though, the costs seem to be on the high side. But we’ll see where it goes. It’s probably too early right now.”
LeBrun thinks Regier has already called the Blue Jackets about Rick Nash, and would be shocked if they didn’t call the Ducks about Bobby Ryan who may be available now. The Panthers and Jason Garrison are expected to talk again tomorrow. The Wild don’t have any plans on trading Niklas Backstrom now that Josh Harding signed a 3 year extension.
“Not at all,” Wild GM Chuck Fletcher told ESPN.com. “We believe we need a strong one-two punch in goal. We’ve got that with Josh and Nik. We have no interest in disrupting that. You look around the league and you see the importance of having depth in goal. That’s what we want.”
WRAL Sports – Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford – Rutherford: Priority is to get a guy to play with Staal and talk on the draft.