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The National Hockey League’s trade freeze for any deals not involving the expansion Vegas Golden Knights will take effect at 3pm Saturday and last until Thursday.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the fortunate position of not being at risk to lose a key player on June 21, as the names available to Vegas GM George McPhee will likely be Ben Smith, Joffrey Lupul, Martin Marincin, Alexei Marchenko and possibly one of youngsters Josh Leivo, Brendan Leipsic or Kerby Rychel.
GM Lou Lamoriello may be looking to take advantage of teams that have protection dilemmas on their expansion list in the next 24 hours in order to make a deal before they risk losing a player for nothing.
The Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild are the most glaring examples of teams that are expected to make a deal with Golden Knights GM George McPhee or with another club to shield or get something for those they cannot protect, but there are other teams that also may be prepared to make a preemptive move.
Lamoriello will likely be “big game hunting” in hopes of snagging a Sami Vatanen, Chris Tanev or another established top-four defenseman in the next month, but the Leafs are likely keeping tabs on other opportunities and prepared to make other moves if a big deal does not come to fruition.
The Florida Panthers are another team that has some vulnerability. GM Dale Tallon will protect veteran Keith Yandle (with a no-movement clause) and Calder Trophy winner Aaron Ekblad, but can only shelter one of veteran Jason Demers (signed to a free agent deal last summer), Alex Petrovic or Mark Pysyk (both restricted free agents this summer).
TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported on an unsubstantiated rumor circulating Thursday that the Leafs may be interested in Pysyk.
The 25-year-old was a 2010 first round pick of the Buffalo Sabres and was dealt to the Panthers last June for Dmitri Kulikov. In the final year of a two-year, $2.25 Million bridge deal, the right-handed Pysyk scored 17 points (4 goals, 13 assists) in 82 games.
While this is nothing more than chatter, the hiring on new head coach Bob Boughner might provide a clue of what Tallon would be looking in return. Boughner was part owner and head coach of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires before joining San Jose as an assistant coach two years ago.
Boughner coached Rychel for most of his OHL career and is expected to get the Panthers to play a more physical brand of hockey that the Marlies scoring leader last season excels at.
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The NHL regular season schedule will be revealed next Thursday, but bits of information are coming out from other NHL clubs regarding the pre-season schedule.
The Leafs are scheduled to play Detroit at the new Little Caesar’s Arena on Friday, September 29th and then match up with the red Wings again at Air Canada Centre on Saturday, September 30.
The Sun’s
Lance Hornby reported via Twitter on Friday that Toronto and the Ottawa Senators will also play a pair of games home-and-home; at the Canadian Tire Center on Monday, September 18 and at ACC on Tuesday, September 19.
If their schedule follows suit from previous years, Toronto will play the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens in home-and-home matchups in between the games vs. Ottawa and Detroit.
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