NHL Rumors: Hartnell, Sabres, Jets, Trade Bait, and the Lightning
Steve Mason and Scott Hartnell

On Scott Hartnell …

Aaron Portzline: Have been told that five or six teams have show some interest in Scott Hartnell. Hartnell would like to sign for a contender.

On the Buffalo Sabres …

Frank Seravalli: The Sabres were one of the teams interested in Kevin Shattenkirk, but may have moved on after trading for Marco Scandella.

On the Winnipeg Jets …

Ken Wiebe: Expect the Jets to sign goaltender Steve Mason tomorrow. Any other potential deals remains to be seen.

Trade Bait …

TSN: Top 10 Trade bait

  1. Matt Duchene – Colorado
  2. Alex Galchenyuk – Montreal
  3. Jason Demers – Florida
  4. Luca Sbisa – Vegas
  5. Marcus Kruger – Chicago
  6. Tyson Barrie – Colorado
  7. Evander Kane – Buffalo
  8. Chris Tanev – Vancouver
  9. Alexei Emelin – Vegas
  10. Ilya Kovalchuk – New Jersey

On the Tampa Bay Lightning …

Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Lightning: The Lightning’s offseason wish list includes a top-four defenseman and a top-nine winger.

The Lightning appear to be signing Dan Girardi but that might not be it for them as Girardi may not upgrade their top-four. They potentially have eight NHL ready defenseman and isn’t ruling out Kevin Shattenkirk yet.

After taking into account RFA signings, they could have around $10 million in cap space. Yzerman spoke with some free agents this week. You are not suppose to talk term or dollar amounts but you can get a ‘general idea.’

“I personally like it,” Yzerman said. “From a players’ perspective, it gives them time to weigh all their options and really what they want to do as opposed to on July 1, pressured to make a decision on where you’re going to and potentially for a long time. The older players that have kids, they’ve got a lot to consider.

“As far as a general manager, you get the chance to talk, get an idea of what it’s going to cost you, what the term might be, and then you can take some time to make a decision, as opposed to July under the old system, it was you don’t have a lot of information and have to make some very important decisions, very expensive ones in a very short period of time.”