- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Senators GM Bryan Murray has let Jason Spezza’s agent know that it’s possible a deal doesn’t happen this weekend.
“I told this to the agent and the player, ‘It may happen, there may be conversations that bring us close to it, but it certainly doesn’t have to be the cutoff point by any stretch,'” said Murray.
“It could go all summer and it could go into the year. If I don’t get the right deal, he has a year left on his contract and that could be the case, yes.”
Of course, this can all change.”
Tire kickers on Spezza are the Stars and Predators. Serious teams include Ducks, Blues and Blackhawks.
“I have talked to a number of managers who have expressed interest in certain players on our team and, in a couple of cases, wondered if I was interested that had never been brought up before,” said Murray.
“It’s just normal, somewhat, leading up to the draft, that there are more calls than you usually get. There hasn’t been (any movement) and I don’t know at this point. There are certainly going to be discussions but whether anything comes of that … One of the managers was kind of laughing because we do a lot of talking and not a lot of things happen on some occasion so we continue to talk.”
- Alex Prewitt of the Washington Post: Five trade chips for the Capitals: 1. Troy Brouwer 2. Joel Ward 3. Dmitry Orlov 4. Mike Green 5. Any of their young defensemen: Nate Schmidt, Cam Schilling, Connor Carrick, Patrick Wey, Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos.
“I think there seems to be bigger names being talked about in the trade market,” MacLellan said. “We’ll see if that really comes to fruition. I think with the cap going up, there might be a little more room for trades to happen. I’ve talked to probably half the managers so far, and will continue to have conversations with them throughout the week. If there’s a chance that something’s a good fit for us, I don’t think they’re going to give centers and defensemen away, but I’m going to explore it.”
“It sounds like there’s more names being talked about than what I’ve heard about in the past,” MacLellan said. “I don’t know if that translates into actual trades, but there seems to be a lot of conversations. There’s more names involved than there has been in the past.”
Craig Custance: Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are not trying to max out their contract extensions as they want a supporting cast.
- Darren Dreger: Teams continue to call the Penguins about James Neal. There has been nothing worth considering for the Penguins.
- Eric Stephens: There is a divide between the Ducks and the pieces the Canucks and Senators want for Ryan Kesler and Jason Spezza.
- Spector’s Hockey: Dreger said that the Leafs are interested in Milan Michalek. If they were to sign him, they would have to trade out a salary, possibly Joffrey Lupul.
