On European free agent David Kampf …
Elliotte Friedman: One European free agent that is getting interest in Czech forward David Kampf. The Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights are believed to be among the teams interested.
On the Detroit Red Wings …
Ansar Khan of MLive: (mailbag) Fighting is down in the NHL, 0.31 per game this year according to HockeyFights.com, but toughness is still important and teams still need players who can fight. Skilled players will get roughed up and may need to respond themselves or have someone else answer the call.
The Red Wings have had their skilled guys fighting – Anthony Mantha five, Andreas Athanasiou two and Dylan Larkin one. Mantha and Athanasiou are now injured. thinks they need to add some abrasiveness and they need to be harder to play against. They tried to sign Matt Martin last offseason and settle on Steve Ott.
GM Ken Holland has another year left on his deal and doesn’t plan on stepping down. Coach Jeff Blashill has two years left on his contract and is likely to be back.
On the trade market and the Toronto Maple Leafs …
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 590 talking about how he thinks it’s could be a crazy offseasons for trades.
“One thing that teams say is that the names you’re going to potentially hear this off-season are going to be incredible. So I am going to hold them to that.”
Friedman on the Toronto Maple Leafs
“If you look at free agency, your biggest unrestricted free agent names are Shattenkirk and Alzner and guys like that who are good players. But again, if you’re talking about paying Matthews, Marner, and Nylander in three years, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to get a defenseman with term who’s going to take – what’s the number going to be, 5.5, 6, 7, 7.5? I don’t think Toronto is going to be able to do that. Unless they look at it like, ‘We’ll do it now and we’ll deal with it later.’ But it’s hard to do that in a cap world.
“So I’m very curious when this season is over what kind of names we start hearing out there. And the teams that either don’t make the playoffs or get knocked out earlier than they hoped, what kind of changes are they going to be talking about.
“Because I do think it’s going to be a wild trade market after this season.”
