So, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was on Calgary’s Sportsnet 960 on Friday morning.
The Tyler Myers to Detroit Red Wings rumors just will not die.
According to Friedman's sources, the Buffalo Sabres have ben scouting the Grand Rapids Griffins with regularity in recent weeks. I'm guessing that Tim Murray and his scouts are not watching former Sabres D Nathan Paetsch who now plays a leadership role for the Griffins. Nor are the Sabres scouting former Rochester Americans captain Kevin Porter who now plays for Grand Rapids.
“I understand that Buffalo has been scouting Grand Rapids, which is Detroit’s American Hockey League team, quite a bit. So who knows what’s going on there. But a few people who have been through and around Grand Rapids have been saying they’ve seen a lot of Buffalo guys there.
In the past, the Sabres and Red Wings have kind of been linked on talks, so you never know what that’s about.…
Here are the Grand Rapids players who the Sabres likely have an interest in:
Anthony Manta ( RW: 7G, 8A in 32 games played). Teemu Pulkinen ( RW: 24G, 24A in 38 games played). Andreas Athanasiou ( C: 7G, 9A in 25 games played).
I've been told that Mantha remains a non-starter for the Red Wings in terms of bait for a Myers trade.
To that end, the Sabres have been doing their homework on the Grand Rapids roster of forwards.
Pulkinen, a young Finn (see Joel Armia), is a slick play maker and a sniping finisher. He's smaller than Mantha (5'11 to 6'5, repectively), however, he can light the lamp and set up his teammates as deftly and successfully as Mantha does.
Athanasiou is a 6'2 center from the Barrie Colts (yes, he's familiar with Brendan Lemieux). He's big, can score, makes plays, and is very responsible on the defensive side of the puck. He's a solid 200 foot player who plays well in all three zones.
The NHL trade deadline is March 2. Sabres GM Tim Murray said this week that he is not actively trying to trade Myers. However, if a great deal is presented to him by a team that covets Myers, he will have to listen and give serious consideration to the offer.
Tim Murray and would be looking for a roster forward (Tatar or Jurco), a prospect, and a first rounder.
Before you dismiss a Myers to Detroit deal remember that Mike Babcock is a free agent head coach at the end of this season. Ken Holland will want to build.
More to come.....
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The Edmonton Oilers have been playing without injured winger Taylor Hall for the past week. Comes news today that the Oilers have lost D-man Nikita Nikitin, suffered a serious shoulder injury in the McEichel Bowl against Buffalo on Thursday night. The 29th place Oilers won the game and lost two points to the 30th place Sabres in the NHL standings.
The news of Nikitin being injured long term will cast new light on the Edmonton-Buffalo battle for last place overall in the NHL standings. Nikitin’s absence from the lineup will no doubt weaken the already soft Oilers D corps.
The Oilers enter Saturday night’s action with a four point (35-31 points) lead on Buffalo for 29th place in the NHL standings.
Nikitin was plastered with a rock solid, clean bodycheck by The Latvian Locomotive, Zemgus Girgensons, in the third period of Edmonton’s 3-2 win over the Buffalo. Oilers head coach Todd Nelson said Saturday that he didn’t want to put a timeline on Nikitin’s status, however, did say that the Russian D would be out for “quite some time…. Oilers play by play man Jack Michaels tweeted that Nikitin would be out 4-6 weeks. Which means that he will not be returning to the Oilers lineup until after the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline.
Nikitin likely out 4-6 weeks.
— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) January 31, 2015The 28 year old D-man has played a steady, reliable role for the Oilers. They will miss him when he is not in their lineup.
The Sabres have lost 14 straight games in regulation and are idle on Saturday night. They will play Montreal on Tuesday night. The Oilers will play their 50th game of the season tonight when they travel to The Red Mile of another installment of “The Battle of Alberta…. The Flames should have no problems dismantling the Oilers tonight considering that Hall and Nikitin will be on the shelf and not playing in the game. On Monday, Hall took a puck off the ankle at practice. He skated with his teammates on Saturday, however, will not play in Calgary. He is hoping to rejoin the starting lineup in San Jose on Monday night.
Might the Nikitin injury be the catalyst for Oilers GM Craig MacTavish to start his roster fire sale? Rumors have persisted for weeks that MacT will be trading away D-man Jeff Petry, gritty soldier Matt Hendricks for young building blocks to help expedite the Edmonton re-build. Trade chatter also suggests that if the price is right, he would also be of the mind to trade Hall, Nail Yakupov, or Jordan Eberle. Before the Nikitin injury, MacT was gung ho on adding a top pair D-man via the trade market. The Nikitin injury will only dump more gasoline on that fire. MacTavish rang the bell, waved his white flag of surrender, and entered the tank movement early when in late December he traded forward David Perron to Pittsburgh for forward Rob Klinkhammer and a 2015 1st round pick. If MacT continues to trade away his assets, it will leave his team a shadow of its former self. The Oilers will play eight of the next nine games away from the barn.
Nikitin has 3Gs and 5As in 34 games this season for the struggling Oilers.
Keith Aulie assume Nikitin’s TOI and will be paired with Mark Fayne.
Talk about an “Alberta Clipper… style storm.
The Oilers are the classic definition of tanking to get McDavid or Eichel. It will be right and just when/if the Oilers start getting tarred and feathered in the court of public opinion the way that Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres have this season for their alleged tank job to get to the basement of the NHL standings.