Latest Trade Winds
Sabres GM Jason Botterill has signaled to General Managers he is open for business and willing to move pending rentals well before the February 26th deadline.
Trade action on winger Evander Kane has heated up significantly in the past week and talks with a couple teams are reaching the serious enough stages where it won’t surprise some NHL execs if Kane is moved by early January.
TSN’s Bob Mckenzie reported Tuesday evening the Sharks, Ducks, Blues and “perhaps” the Calgary Flames are amongst the most serious suitors for Kane at this point.
Speculation around the league has also linked the NHL-lead Tampa Bay Lightning to Kane, one of the NHL’s best even strength goal scorers among wingers.
While Penguins GM Jim Rutherford is notorious for looking into almost every big name on the market and Pittsburgh had some internal discussions on Kane last June, there’s no indication at this conjecture the Penguins are pursuing Kane.
However, there’s been some trade speculation surrounding the Sabres and Penguins, just not regarding Kane, at least not yet.
League sources say winger [hide] Benoit Pouliot is certainly a player the Penguins are tracking to address their lack of depth scoring.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Penguins’ current regime has had interest in Pouliot.
In Jim Rutherford’s first summer as Penguins GM, Pittsburgh targeted Pouliot as a free agent but Penguins’ ownership that summer wanted to scale back on long-term contracts to free agents. Pittsburgh, though, still ended up a finalist for Pouliot who got a big contract from Edmonton.
While Pouliot was bought-out in Edmonton, his play this season has resembled the player from the 2013-2014 season with the Rangers.
With 8 goals on the season, Pouliot carries just a $1.15 million cap that has the Penguins and quite a few other clubs near the cap with close eyes on how Pouliot continues to track over the next little while.
The hope in Buffalo is that Pouliot plays his way into netting a second round pick + a C-level prospect. He’s not there yet as inconsistent play still follows him and the 8 goals on 46 shots has him well above his career shooting percentage, but he’s a nice piece with a low cap hit for a team looking to add a 3rd or 4th line winger.
It won’t be a surprise if the Sabres and Penguins become a trade match and preliminary talks eventually head into the advanced stages.
Priorities for Jason Botterill’s Sabres’ is getting faster, adding defensive depth and Buffalo wants to bring in players who have won and come from a winning culture.
The team plays with no identity that the Sabres brass feels has to do with the make-up of the room.
That has had Ian Cole linked to Buffalo a little bit on the back-end but making a move for him now only makes sense if an extension is in place.
The player that is kind of interesting here is Carl Hagelin.
While the Penguins have not put a ‘For Sale’ sign up on Hagelin as they feel he impacts games beyond goals/assists and he’s well liked in the room, Buffalo is one spot a league source mentioned to me that Pittsburgh likely could move Hagelin if they wanted.
Botterill is said to be high on Hagelin, per sources with knowledge of the situation, and Hagelin checks a couple boxes of adding more speed and bringing in a player who has a wealth of playoff experience/two Stanley Cups.
Botterill knows the Penguins system better than anyone. Pouliot for Hagelin straight up wouldn’t interest Buffalo because there’s more long-term value for the Sabres to just move Pouliot for a draft pick and or prospect, but Pouliot for Hagelin with Pittsburgh throwing in additional assets (3rd round pick?/and NHL-ready prospect) ends up being value for both sides.
Not only from Pittsburgh’s end would they replace Hagelin with an ideal replacement in Pouliot for the short-term, they would get the Hagelin deal off the books for next year where even with the cap going up, Pittsburgh wants to clear space for the likes of Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust and be a little active in what’s going to be a good free agent crop.[/hide]
HAHA they just called it a glove hand for Murray
Gray balls
LOL nah I man scape
I bet you do you little vixen!
Pens might do a big trade after this mini road trip
Thanks for the update. Your sources telling you any names?
I think I figured out why same is usually 2 hours to 2 days behind on news… he’s clearly still on fucken dialup net access. You need to move out of the nest dude
Sam, can you do me a favor and call your buddy coach D and ask him to read the nhl rule book on expansion drafts and protection rights for goalies? I’m curious if all this game action for Jarry is going to screw the Pens again with Jarry and an expansion draft for Seattle.
You mean in 2021?
I’m not sure the year, but if 2021 is the target for them to play, sure. I thought vegas turned around an nhl team much faster than 4 years once they finalized an arena and did their ticket study, but I guess Seattle is moving along at a slower pace.
Anyways, what was the metric that determined eligibilty for the draft? I thought it was nhl years of service and if so, after how many games in the nhl for a year does your year count? And after how many years were you eligible?
Vegas is just a faze team. Just like Florida was once ,Carolina. And Pittsburgh that is now
LOL what? I dont even know what that means. I assume you mean they are hot right now and will cool off. IF that is what you are trying to say then it applies to all 31 franchises genius!
3 years pro and I believe Seattle’s target date is the 20-21 season
Why do the Pens need a bottom 6 winger? They have plenty already and in about a month or 2 will have to have a spot for Sprong. I forget who was on Madden the other week, but they said JR was asking about Aston-Reese and a call-up. The major needs are 3C, backup ver goalie and better D. Wing, whether it be top or bottom 6 is the least of their needs.
Trump should mention in his tweets about this site. fake news
So McDavid in Vancouver and Malkin back to Russia was real?
Full credit to D for having a completely fabricated rumour and turning it into a 1000 word article. Keep this quality content coming.
No way Pouliot fetches more than Hags. Trade Letang for young assets, free cap space and play for a cup in 2019.
good luck trading letang with that contract
And his lack of hockey sense and injury prone body.
Yea, what he said!!
(Take back a million in KL’s contract).
I AGREE ITS TIME TO MOVE LETANG……