On the Calgary Flames …
Pierre LeBrun: The Flames are looking for a top-four defenseman and think they are looking at Travis Hamonic, Marc Methot and others. They are also trying to re-sign Michael Stone.
On the New Jersey Devils …
Pierre LeBrun: Hearing that the Devils are one of the teams that has talked to the Canadiens about Alex Galchenyuk.
Pierre LeBrun: Not sure if there is a fit but they have talked about it.
On the Vancouver Cancuks …
Ben Kuzma: Canucks GM Jim Benning on not trading Chris Tanev: “I would say so. Three months ago we had depth. To move him, we’d have to get a good D back.”
Vancovuer Canucks: GM Benning said that trading up from the top four pick “is not a possibility right now” and added that “we like two or three players at 5.”
Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks have spoken with Ryan Miller‘s camp: “If we have some good news to announce, we’ll let everybody know.”
Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province: Ryan Miller’s agent proposed a incentive-laden one-year deal to the Canucks today. The proposed deal could pick up momentum this weekend. Agent Mike Luit and GM Jim Benning spoke briefly on Wednesday night.
“Incentive-based contracts can only be done be if you do a one-year deal if you’re over 35 and all you’re doing is moving money guaranteed from a fixed cost to a variable cost,” Liut said Thursday. “You’re essentially taking money off the cap for the summer and adding it back to the end number at the end of the year.
“When you start talking about the salary cap, it’s not that you don’t trust the player or think he’s not going to perform. It’s just a means of shifting money off the direct cap and shifting it to an in-direct cap.
“With Ryan, you have to be careful with anyone over 35. They are going to agree to something that they can earn because the risk to the player is that he gets hurt. You have to play to earn it, and this just provides incentive. I’ve talked about every possibly scenario with Ryan.”
A one-year deal at around $3 to $4 million makes sense.
