Rumors III: Trade Bait, Sabres, Devils and Maple Leafs
  • TSN Trade Bait: 1. Antoine Vermette 2. Jeff Petry 3. Zbynek Michalek 4. Erik Cole 5. Chris Stewart 6. Curtis Glencross 7. Jay McClement 8. Jan Hejda 9. Tyler Bozak 10. Tomas Fleischmann
  • Brayton Wilson of WGR 550: (Thursday) Sabres GM Tim Murray has been talking to teams on a regular basis.

    “I’ve called a couple people that I’ve had conversations with earlier in the year,” Murray said. “I had some calls today, made a couple calls back to people, left a message. There are teams that are interested in some of your guys and teams that are not interested. Have I called 29 other teams, I haven’t. But I’ve talked to several teams.”

    Murray has had talks on a player that took him by surprise.

    “I had a call like that today that I never thought I would get on a guy,” Murray said. “He actually said, ‘Can you believe I’m calling you on this guy?’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t. But let’s talk.”

    “You’re supposed to have an idea of who you may be dealing with because of previous conversations, but you never know. Some team could come out of the blue, whether that’s because of an injury or your guy happens to be playing very well and their opinion changed on them. There’s multiple reasons why you might get a call from somebody that you hadn’t previously thought was a fit for a guy.”

  • Rich Chere of NJ.com: Devils Michael Ryder knows he could be showcasing himself this weekend.

    “I’m just going to go out and play hard and do what I can. It’s two games before the trade deadline. If I end up here after the deadline, or somewhere else, it’s out of my control,” Ryder told NJ Advance Media.

    “If I go out and do what I can to help this team win, it’s good. If they decide to move me, I’ll do that somewhere else.”

    The Devils played the Bruins on Friday, a team that is rumored to be interested.

  • Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun: Don’t bet on the Maple Leafs being done. The Leafs already have traded Cody Franson, Mike Santorelli, Daniel Winnik and David Clarkson, and it gives the luxury of being a little more aggressive with their core players leading up to the deadline. Hearing the Rangers are poking around Tyler Bozak. Talk for weeks about the Kings and Dion Phaneuf.

    “We need to make some changes, that’s apparent,” Nonis said. “We have some good players that haven’t played to their capabilities this season, that haven’t had the years we need them to have.

    “It doesn’t mean we’re going to fire-sale people out. We’re not going to make moves to clean the roster out. We need to get value.”