Scouting the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets …
Mark Scheig: Scouts listed to attend last night’s Flyers-Jackets game: Chicago Blackhawks (2), Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On the Buffalo Sabres …
Bille Hoppe of the Buffalo Hockey Beat: With Goaltender Linus Ullmark ready to make the jump the NHL next season, the Sabres could look move goaltender Robin Lehner at the deadline.
Backup goaltender Chad Johnson is a pending UFA and could interest teams.
If the Sabres move Lehner, they could keep Johnson to finish out the stretch. If he plays well, they could re-sign him to back Ullmark next season.
On the Vegas Golden Knights …
Jonathan Willis of Sportsnet: The Golden Knights selected James Neal and David Perron in the expansion with the idea of flipping them at the trade deadline. Times have changed. It would be hard to the Golden Knights moving them now, even though they could possibly get a first round pick for each.
It’s not out of the question that the Golden Knights are buyers at the deadline.
Adding a third-line scoring winger could be on their wish list, someone with size.
On the Vancouver Canucks …
Jason Brough of The Athletic: The Canucks will be looking to sell at the trade deadline, and should be looking to stockpile draft picks.
They should consider trading Chris Tanev as he’ll be in his 30’s when their rebuild is done.
Signing defenseman Erik Gudbranson would be a mistake as they would likely be overpaying for a third pairing defenseman.
Trading winger Thomas Vanek for a draft pick should happen.
The Canucks could start looking to take a ‘bad’ contract with a sweetener attached to it. What else would the Penguins include to move Carl Hagelin and his $4 million salary cap hit?
