Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star: 11 scouts were on hand to witness the Leafs-Kings game last night, with Canadiens GM Bob Gainey as one of them. Niklas Hagman scored 2 goals and might have increased his stock. Leafs GM Brian Burke said that he gets the most calls for Hagman, who’s at a reasonable price of $3 million for each of the next 2 seasons. Both Alexei Ponikarovsky and Matt Stajan won’t bring in the return that Hagman would.
Michael Traikos of the National Post: It’s no secret that the Leafs will be both selling (Stajan, Ponikarovsky, Stempniak, etc.) and buying (larger contracts that come with prospects/draft picks) at the deadline. Burke has said once again that he’ll take on salary, and isn’t afraid to bury some of it in the minors. Traikos brings up once again that the Blackhawks could be interested in this salary dump option, and provides a list of 5 players that might convince Burke to be a buyer: Jack Skille (22 years old, $850,000), Kris Versteeg (23 years old, $3 million), Dustin Byfuglien (24 years old, $3 million), Andrew Ladd (23 years old, $1.55 million), and Brian Campbell (30 years old, $7.14 million). With Campbell, they’d have to throw in a 1st round pick.
Darren Dreger of TSN via Twitter: Toronto Maple Leafs Jamal Mayers may also be on the move. His agent, Pat Brisson has been given permission to talk to teams to see if they would be interested in trading for him. He’d be a good addition for a playoff bound team, he’s tough, a good leader, and can probably be had for a mid round pick.
Another Maple Leaf that has been in the news lately is Jonas Gustavsson. My NHL Trade Rumors writer Derek posted a Gustavsson piece titled “It’s Time to Find out About The ‘Monster‘” yesterday, that might have gotten buried a bit with today’s posts.
