Early Trading: Will big names stay put, or hit the market?

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun goes the priorities of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and their pending unrestricted free agents, the status of the Toronto Maple Leafs' negotiations with John Tavares, and what the Montreal Canadiens are looking for in the early edition of Insider Trading.
 

Panthers navigating key UFAs

Now that some of the partying is dying down in South Florida, it’s certainly an important seven days now for Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito, who’s trying to re-sign some of his core pending unrestricted free agents.

No. 1 priority, I believe, is [forward] Sam Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy. It’s one thing to announce to everyone during the [Stanley Cup] celebrations that he’s not going anywhere, but the reality is there still has to be a negotiation here.

Zito wants to keep him, and Bennett wants to stay, but what is that number? Bennett has an agent in Darren Ferris, same as Mitch Marner, and he likes to bring his clients to July 1 if their clients are comfortable with that to maximize their leverage.

No question in my mind that Bennett can take $10 million per year over seven years on the open market, but he’s not getting that in Florida. So, what’s the number that makes sense for Bennett? Is it $8 million? Less than that?

We know that Sam Reinhart signed for $8 million a year for eight years [with the Panthers] at this time last year.

Second on that list is [forward] Brad Marchand ahead of [defenceman] Aaron Ekblad if I were to predict the odds of who stays.

I think this will be interesting because a couple of weeks ago the sense was Marchand was more of a rental, but he had such a great Stanley Cup Final and he was such a great fit that I think the Panthers will, as Zito said publicly, try to re-sign him.

But what number makes sense there?

I think you have to add a lot of years to that deal with Marchand to bring down the average annual value, where he doesn’t play all those years at the age of 37. It’s a way to bring down the cap hit, so we’ll see if the total dollars can fit for Marchand.

I think that probably leaves out Ekblad. I’m not going to say there’s no chance he re-signs but the reality is that I don’t think there’s been a lot of negotiation throughout the year since last summer on Ekblad.

Term was an issue last time both sides talked about a potential extension. There’s some hard miles on Ekblad, although he’s a very important player on that team.

It just feels that when you look at three key pending UFAs that someone gets squeezed out. I could be wrong but I feel like that’s Ekblad, who is in all likelihood heading to market.

Tavares, Maple Leafs still negotiating

Moving onto Toronto and speaking of pending UFAs, forward John Tavares still has not been signed. That might surprise some people at the end of the year.

It was pretty obvious from Tavares’ comments that all he had in mind was staying home and he wanted to sign an extension. That remains true.

But what is the sweet spot here for Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving, agent Pat Brisson, and Tavares? I checked in on this file today and they remain apart.

The good thing is that the dialogue continues, and they’ve been talking almost every single day here. They’re grinding a way and trying to find a way to get him signed and extended in Toronto.

It’s not easy and when you look at the recent compatibles, it’s two different stories being told. If you’re Treliving and you see Matt Duchene sign for $4.5 million a year for four years with the Dallas Stars, you say it’s a bargain and wonder why he can’t get that.

On the other hand, if you’re Brisson and you look at Brock Nelson signing for $7.5 million a year for three years with the Colorado Avalanche, you say that he had fewer points than Tavares did last year.

So, it’s finding that sweet spot and term that has proven difficult for Tavares and it’s not a guarantee that they figure it out.

Tavares has to be ready to hit the market next week if they don’t reach a deal.

Canadiens looking to upgrade

Finally let’s talk about the Montreal Canadiens who haven’t had a big splash yet, but not from a lack of effort.

From talking to other teams around the league, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has been quite energetic in trying to investigate the trade market and understand what’s out there in terms of a top six upgrade.

I think it’s important to point out that, in a perfect world the Canadiens would go out and find a No. 2 centre, but those guys are so hard to find, and other teams have found that as well.

The Canadiens would be fine with a top-six winger as well if that is something more reasonable and that makes sense. The bottom line is that they want to upgrade their top six.

I will also note this on Montreal: This isn’t about making sure they stay in the playoffs and not just about next year. Internally, part of discussion in Montreal is not to lose their view of what this is about.

The Canadiens want to build a contender that takes multiple cracks at it over the next decade. So, it’s not about next year. Of course, they want to stay a playoff team, but they’re not going to do something stupid and overpay for a short-term hit that’s just enough where they can stay in the playoff picture.

I think it’s important to remember because what I take from that is if the fit is not there over the next couple of weeks and they don’t find that upgrade then they’ll be patient and try to do it in season or maybe even next summer.