- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Predators may have made one last push to the Leafs for Phil Kessel before he was traded to the Penguins.There was talk yesterday of a potential offer sheet for Blues Vladimir Tarasenko, and talk that the Blues would match it. Why bother then? To make the Blues spend more money than they would like.
The Wild tried to re-sign Chris Stewart, but didn’t have the cap space for it. Talk is he’s looking for two-years and $8 million.
The Blackhawks will continue to try and trade Patrick Sharp.
The Penguins tried to trade for Brandon Saad before the Blue Jackets acquired him.
Senators GM Bryan Murray chose not to buyout Colin Greening, but he’ll continue to try and trade him. He has two more years on his deal at a $2.65 million cap hit. Mild interest in him.
- Hope Smoke: Darren Dreger on TSN radio said that the Leafs were interested in Michael Frolik and Andrej Sekera. They offered Frolik a five-year contract.On the Phil Kessel trade: “the Leafs weren’t getting Maatta. No chance. I’m sure that was made clear instantly.” … “I’m sure the Leafs asked for Pouilot & other one pieces but Pitt wasn’t willing to make those deals” … “Maybe trade off was in amount of retained $? At 1 point I was told Leafs were inching closer to eating 25% of Kessel’s contract” … “Maybe Leafs said they’d back off on Pouilot if they lightened the load on retained salary? It ended up being only 15%” … “I gotta believe that Shanahan, Dubas or whoever was managing this had to ask for those players” … “The Pens love Pouilot and I can guarantee Maatta was never involved. That was a non-starter”
Dreger said that Daniel Winnik could get traded at the deadline.
Dreger on Tyler Bozak: “I think there’s a possibility (that Bozak gets traded) but again, the Leafs need players ” … “I know the Coyotes had considerable interest in Bozak going back months. They needed a C but they signed Vermette yesterday” … “I’m not saying there’s no interest from Arizona in Bozak now but it took a hit when Vermette signed”
