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UPDATE : 7:45PM - Sportsnet's Roger Millions reports that Leafs GM Dave Nonis is at Madison Square Garden in New York to watch Tuesday night's game between the Rangers and Calgary Flames. Nonis travelled to Boston to scout the Beanpot Tournament on Monday and his most recent scouting trip preceded the deal with Nashville for Cody Franson.
Millions indicates that there are rumors about the Leafs and Calgary talking about a possible deal, but it is possible that Nonis is killing two birds with one stone and scouting the Rangers as well, who are said to one of many teams interested in pending UFA winger Daniel Winnik.
The Flames are tied with Los Angeles and San Jose for third in the Pacific Division with 68 points and have a significant amount of available cap space to add players if they wish to before the trade deadline.
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The first swap of the week leading up to the March 2nd NHL trade deadline was not the traditional rent-a-player deal for future assets, but an exchange of struggling 22-year-old wingers in need of a change of scenery, as the Montreal Canadiens acquired big forward Devante Smith-Pelly from the Anaheim Ducks for Jiri Sekac.
Deals of this nature will be the exception rather than the rule over the next six days, as the current NHL landscape appears to falling into place for the few teams in a selling mode, which includes the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Clubs in good position to make the post-season like Montreal, NY Islanders, St. Louis, NY Rangers, Detroit and Pittsburgh are looking for that one addition that could put them over the top, while teams within range of a playoff spot have the quandary of whether to trade expiring contracts and fall out of the race or roll the dice by maintaining the status quo.
Two weeks ago, the Eastern Conference appeared to have no legitimate playoff race, but the struggles of the Boston Bruins have kept the Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers within striking distance of the last wild card spot.
The Bruins ended a six-game losing streak with a 6-2 win in Chicago on Sunday, but learned Monday that top center David Krejci will be out 4-6 weeks with a partially torn MCL. This setback may set GM Peter Chiarelli in motion to find a stop gap option to fill in for Krejci, but it also may prevent Florida GM Dale Tallon from shipping out UFA’s Tomas Kopecky, Tomas Fleischmann and Scottie Upshall or Philadelphia GM Ron Hextall from moving blueliners Michael Del Zotto or Kimmo Timonen.
In the West, the only teams definitely out of playoff consideration are Arizona and Edmonton. Vancouver, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Calgary, San Jose, Dallas and Colorado are within eight points of each other in a fight over four playoff spots.
The Canucks lost goalie Ryan Miller for 4-6 weeks with a lower body injury on the weekend and are without defensemen Kevin Bieksa, Chris Tanev and Alex Edler. The Jets added Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford in the mega deal with Buffalo, but recently lost forward Mathieu Perreault and defenseman Ben Chiarot, which may have GM’s Jim Benning and Kevin Cheveldayoff looking for reinforcements.
Of the eight teams that could be categorized as sellers, half don’t appear to have many pieces that they would be willing to move or that other teams have interest in.
Buffalo will deal forwards Chris Stewart, Torrey Mitchell and possibly goalie Michal Neuvirth, Ottawa has no expiring contracts and veterans Chris Phillips and Chris Neil(currently injured) have not expressed the willingness to go elsewhere for a last crack at a Cup, Columbus is reportedly shopping blueliner James Wisniewski(who has two years left at $5.5 Million) and possibly pending UFA’s Mark Letestu and Jack Skille, while defenseman Jeff Petry is the only name drawing any attention in Edmonton.
Carolina, Arizona, New Jersey and Toronto are the clubs that will benefit the most from a potential feeding frenzy over the likes of Jiri Tlusty, Andrej Sekera, Antoine Vermette, Zbenyk Michalek, Jaromir Jagr, Marek Zidlicky and Daniel Winnik, but the relatively small amount of sellers could give Toronto an advantage in finding suitors for Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul or Roman Polak, who have term left on their contracts.
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The Maple Leafs and representatives for goalie Jonathan Bernier have not discussed a contract extension, according to a report from NBC’s Pro Hockey Talk .
The 26-year-old’s two-year, $5.8 Million bridge deal expires this summer and it was thought that the Leafs would look to sign Bernier to a long term contract extension, but the club’s recent decision to implement a rebuild may have changed their philosophy regarding the goalie’s future in Toronto.
“(Bernier’s) contract is up this summer. He has another year left before becoming a free agent in the summer of 2016,… agent Pat Brisson said. “We’re just going to see how things are going to go here in the next little while. Obviously the trade deadline is this weekend.…
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