Ahead of TradeCentre on Friday, TSN’s Hockey Insiders have the latest on Maple Leafs Bobby McMann and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the Sabres putting a deadline on Colton Parayko’s decision, the Flames needing overpay to trade Zach Whitecloud or Blake Coleman, the Canadiens’ interest in Whitecloud and Montreal keeping tabs on Nazem Kadri and Robert Thomas, the Senators sending a message that they’re buyers, and more.
James Duthie: The Leafs are now officially sellers as Nicolas Roy goes to Colorado so the next question becomes: Who is next, and how many will be next? I guess we start with Bobby McMann.
Chris Johnston: Yeah, Bobby McMann, obviously a pending unrestricted free agent on a very good contract for another team out there looking to add someone of his calibre.
The Leafs can still go both ways here and it is an either/or proposition for them. They continue to have dialogue with his agent about what an extension might look like.
In his favour is the fact that Kiefer Sherwood signed a five-year deal this week in San Jose with an average annual value was at $5.75 million. It won’t take quite that much to get McMann done.
I think the Leafs would like to keep him in the $4 million range, and if not, he can be a piece that brings them back a first-round pick or perhaps two second-round picks.
Darren Dreger: Yeah, the three players that we’re watching most closely now are Bobby McMann, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Scott Laughton. The thing that all three of those men have together is that they all want to stay in Toronto.
So when I look at Ekman-Larsson - of course there’s interest, there’s a high level of interest around the NHL, but he wants to stay in Toronto.
He’s got a limited trade protection, so that is an issue from his perspective, but you could also appreciate why Brad Treliving would be listening to all of the interest in Ekman-Larsson.
You just hit the home run in getting a first-round pick and a fifth-round pick for Roy to the Colorado Avalanche, so what is the expected return for Ekman-Larsson?
It’s got to be at least a first and a second, so that’s why you listen.
Duthie: The player’s desires matter, which we sometimes overlook in all these rumours, and we’ve learned how important that is in the Colton Parayko situation where the trade was done and reported between Buffalo and St. Louis but the trade wasn’t done because the player involved didn’t want to go to Buffalo.
So where does that leave Parayko, where does that leave the Blues?
Pierre LeBrun: The Blues have dominated the news cycle in the last couple of days between Parayko and Robert Thomas. When it comes to Parayko, the Buffalo Sabres needed an answer from him, and my understanding from talking to someone in the middle of all this is that the Sabres were great in all of this.
They understood it was a difficult decision for Parayko, but they also put a bit of pressure on there to say ‘we need an answer because we need to pivot if you’re not coming to us.’
So Parayko said ‘if you need an answer, it’s going to be no because I’m just not there right now.’
Parayko is still with the Blues and whether or not another team puts an offer in front of St. Louis, the time for him to make up his mind between now and tomorrow, I think, is doubtful.
Robert Thomas, it’s been very quiet today, I’m told - Utah is ready to jump back in, the Mammoth believe they have the best package available for Robert Thomas but at this point in time I’m told it is status quo in the Robert Thomas situation.
Johnston: The Buffalo end of this is interesting too because they tried on Thomas earlier in the week, they obviously were trying to get Parayko done and they’ve ended up so far with none of them but obviously are having a great season.
So I would expect them to be big players in some way, shape or form by the deadline.
The Sabres are like the Detroit Red Wings, they share a lot in common. Both are trying to end long playoff droughts. Both have tried on right-shot defencemen that didn’t end up working out, with Detroit trying to get Tyler Myers earlier in the week, so I could see them bidding on some of the same players.
I still wonder if a Rasmus Ristolainen reunion in Buffalo is possible, though the prices there are pretty high because there’s a lot of teams involved with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Duthie: Calgary back in the game, MacKenzie Weegar goes to Utah, and they continue to pile up draft picks. Zach Whitecloud, Blake Coleman, will they likely follow?
Dreger: That’s the hope of the market, but that may not be the expectation of the Flames. When you look at Coleman and Whitecloud, both of these men are high-character individuals.
Calgary is selling, there’s no doubt about that, but they’re not throwing in the towel moving forward - they want to keep good, competitive players.
If you look at Whitecloud, they’ve got all the time in the world because they’ve got a young defenceman (Zayne Parekh) that he’d be perfect mentoring for.
So Whitecloud is available, yes, but Calgary needs to be blown away, and I would say the same about Coleman.
LeBrun: The Montreal Canadiens have ties to the Flames, they have for weeks because we’ve talked about Nazem Kadri.
First of all, on Kadri, I don’t think Montreal can get deep into a Kadri conversation once and for all unless the Flames are ready to retain salary on those three years left at $7 million. I don’t know if Calgary wants to do that.
Secondly, you mentioned Whitecloud, that’s a player of interest to the Canadiens. They’d like to get a right-shot defenceman, they were in on Connor Murphy, they didn’t get him, they’re looking at a few right-shot D as well.
What I will say on Montreal at the end of the day, whether it’s Robert Thomas or other players: They don’t want to force a trade just for the sake of saying they made a trade. They’re a young team, they’re just starting their window, it has to be right for them and they’re okay not doing anything.
Duthie: The Ottawa Senators are six points out of a playoff spot, so it’s rare to see a hardcore buyer in that position, but they have a really good hockey team. Do we see more from Ottawa?
Johnston: It’s possible, I don’t know if I’d call them a hardcore buyer, but they feel like they have a team that can still make a push here for the playoffs.
Obviously it’s getting tougher as they get by and they’re losing points along the way, but you look at their team and you do think they can get in.
Warren Foegele’s an interesting case - he’s had a tough season in Los Angeles, he wanted a fresh start there, but last year was really good for him. He’s a middle-six winger who can kill some penalties, it’s a buy-low kind of candidate and I like the move for the Senators. Let’s see if they can come up with anything else by tomorrow.
Duthie: Finally, two other stops out west, Winnipeg and Vancouver. We know Vancouver’s in full rebuild mode but we don’t know exactly what the Jets are going to do.
Dreger: Both teams seem to be caught in the log jam, so we need to see how things transpire and develop as the night progresses and then leading up to the deadline tomorrow.
When you look at the Winnipeg Jets, mostly we’re looking at Logan Stanley, and he’s a coveted defenceman, but for Winnipeg to consider trading him, even though there’s a contract issue there in terms of an extension, they’ve gotta get a fair offer. And right now that just hasn’t happened.
Could it materialize as some of the other defencemen go? Yes, probably.
Vancouver is in that waiting mode on Evander Kane, Teddy Blueger is expected to go, maybe Drew O’Connor, but it’s all part of the number of players that remain in the game.
