Insider Trading: Isles listening to offers for Dobson; Leafs 'inching' towards Tavares extension

TSN's Hockey Insiders have the latest on the Islanders listening to offers for pending RFA Noah Dobson, the Cup champion Panthers making offers to their top three UFAs, the Maple Leafs 'inching' towards an extension with John Tavares, Brock Boeser being a player of interest to the Jets, and more.

Islanders listening to offers on pending UFA Dobson?

GINO REDA: Alongside the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger. 

Gentlemen, with the clock ticking down to the opening of free agency on Tuesday, teams across the league are trying to figure out what they have before they decide what they need.

C.J., where are the Islanders with pending restricted free agent Noah Dobson?

JOHNSTON: Well, there’s always been an understanding this would be an ‘either or’ situation. Either the Islanders were signing their restricted free agent Noah Dosbon to a deal that bought some of his UFA years, which start next year, or they would be trading him.

After having discussions with his agent, the feeling right now is that the Islanders are looking at the trade market, certainly engaging with other teams to see what that might look like.

Look, it’s going to be a complicated deal. There’s a lot of teams interested in this player. 

But who can pay the price? Who can get the kind of agreement for him? I can tell you that the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues are among those that have been involved to this point with Dobson.

But at this stage, it’s a little too soon to say exactly which direction it’s going to go or if anyone else jumps in there because they first have to make a trade with the Islanders and then, ultimately, get the player signed to complete a deal.

Cup champion Panthers looking to re-sign Bennett, Marchand and Ekblad

REDA: Elsewhere, even before the Panthers hoisted the Stanley Cup, we were already talking about what Florida was looking to do with the big three pending UFAs, Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad. 

Bill Zito says he wants to keep all three, is he making progress on that front, Pierre?

LeBRUN: He’s certainly trying to, Gino. My understanding is that the full push is on now from the Panthers front office on all three.

Offers have been made, I believe, to Sam Bennett and to Brad Marchand, and certainly, discussions have taken on a new life here with Aaron Ekblad. But I just don’t know that they’ll be able to keep all three.

Again, Bennett, I think, is the priority. That’s the player they really want to get done before next Tuesday. Brad Marchand, they’ve made an offer, they’ll see where that goes. 

Aaron Ekblad, I think, is the pending UFA that ends up going to market. I’m not saying that 100 per cent, but that’s where signs are right now. Term has been an issue there. There are potential landing spots in Utah and Dallas depending on what those teams do in the trade market. 

So, we’ll see where it goes with all three.

Sabres' Byram generating interest in trade market

REDA: JJ Peterka wanted out of Buffalo, he got his wish. 

Is there another Sabre drawing a lot of interest around the league right now, Dregs?

DREGER: Yeah, there is, Gino. Similar to Noah Dobson, he’s a defenceman, Bo Byram.

There is a contract snarl here developing, as well. So, the Buffalo Sabres are looking to turn the potential of a contract problem into a playing asset, very similar to JJ Peterka.

There is a ton of interest in Bo Byram, as you would expect. Now initially, Kevyn Adams wanted a right-shot defenceman back as part of a package for Byram, well, he got that in the Peterka trade.

So I’m looking at LA, Vegas, St. Louis, Vancouver, Colorado, maybe longshot, Toronto Maple Leafs as teams with interest in Bo Byram.

Tavares, Leafs making progress

REDA: Speaking of the Leafs, we know John Tavares wants to stay in Toronto, but he’ll be 35 at the start of next season and the Leafs got to manage their dollars moving forward.

What are the chances this gets done before he can become a UFA in the next few days, C.J.?

JOHNSTON: Well, the chances seem to be increasing ever so slightly by the hour, I would say, Gino.

I’m sensing a window of daylight has come in here, and look, we’ve been covering this story pretty closely in the last week. It’s been a grind, that’s no surprise. 

But as someone said to me today involved in the talks, things are ‘inching closer’ to getting done here. I think, ultimately, the fact they’re still talking, the fact that that dialogue is continuing, and the fact that there is even, at least, slight hints of progress here tells you where this is going to end up.

It’s not a deep market at centre, and obviously the player likes the city and the team likes the player.

Golden Knights remaining aggressive after busy start to off-season

REDA: Darren, for a while now you’ve been telling us that Vegas has been going hard, pushing, trying to get their hands on Mitch Marner moving forward.

Have they got a plan on how to make the math work, Dregs?

DREGER: Well that is the tricky part, no doubt about that. Like any contending team that is a cap team, it has to be dollar in, dollar out.

But Kelly McCrimmon and the Vegas Golden Knights are very good when it comes to mathematics and staying in compliance with the salary cap.

But you’re right. I mean, Vegas is trying to be super aggressive, they are believed to be a top contender for Mitch Marner as an unrestricted free agent. We’ve just talked about Vegas potentially being in on a defenceman, like Bo Byram from the Buffalo Sabres. They just extended [Reilly] Smith and [Brandon] Saad on very fair deals to the Vegas Golden Knights. 

But they also have a question mark, a significant one. And that’s veteran defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, specifically his health and his immediate future. 

So, there’s some question marks to go along with the speculation around the Golden Knights.

Stars looking to extend pending UFA Granlund, decision on Robertson upcoming

REDA: The Dallas Stars have made some moves. They’ve got lots more they want to do, including possibly also taking a run at Mitch Marner, as well. 

How could they be looking to make some room under the cap, Pierre?

LeBRUN: Yeah, they’ve still got to move money. I mean, one of their pending UFAs after re-signing Jamie Benn, and of course Matt Duchene before that, they’d like to keep Mikael Granlund, as well, who they picked up from San Jose during last year.

But they need room, so they’re still trying to trade Matt Dumba at $3.75 million on the one year left on his contract. They may have to move more money beyond that, and in the middle of all that, of course, they keep taking calls on Jason Robertson.

Now, my sense is, checking on this again today, they’d rather sign Jason Robertson to an extension and they can do that as of July 1, but if they don’t like what they hear on that front, then they might go back on their Robertson trade calls and see what the market is like.

And yes, in the end, we know that Marner, Dallas, we believe, is on his list of teams. I think it’s a longshot for Dallas to make it work under the cap, but don’t count them out.

Jets eyeing Boeser in free agency?

REDA: And listen, while teams go big-game hunting, not everyone is going to land the big prize. 

So, who might be waiting in the wings for his shot when the initial wave blows through, Dregs?

DREGER: Well, likely Brock Boeser, right? When you’re looking at a scoring winger, a player that is attractive to a lot of teams, both north and south of the border, Brock Boeser is open to all options.

I’m looking at the Winnipeg Jets, and he seems to be, Boeser that is, as a free agent, a real good fit. That’s assuming that Nikolaj Ehlers, is going to leave Winnipeg. 

Now we believe, and we can understand why Ehlers would want to test the market on July 1, he’s a pending unrestricted free agent, he wants to fully educate himself on what all of his options are. But he hasn’t closed the door on Winnipeg and I believe that Kevin Cheveldayoff will continue to be in the game to retain Nikolaj Ehlers, but if he signs somewhere else, then Brock Boeser might be a good option.

REDA: There are a lot of balls in the air right now. They are the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.