NHL Rumors: Avalanche should pursue Jonathan Quick, Blackhawks active in trade talks, and Sharks reset coming
Anthony Scultore
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There was some buzz around the NHL Rumors mill involving the Avalanche yesterday. It appears they were close to acquiring Jonas Johansson from the Buffalo Sabres. That has yet to come to fruition, and may actually be a dead deal from what I can gather.
NHL Rumors: Avalanche should go bigger and acquire Jonathan Quick
Jonathan Quick’s name is back in the in trade buzz conversations again. The 35 year-old net minder has only played in 13 games this season. He’s given way to Cal Petersen as the new Kings #1. Quick has a solid record of 6-5-2 with a 2.97 GAA. His SV% could be be better at .897 but his two Stanley Cup rings have more weight to contenders than you think.
One of those contenders who need another goalie are the Avs. Not only to back up Phillip Grubauer, but be a fill-in number one in case of emergency are the Avalanche. GM Joe Sakic was looking at Detroit’s Jonathan Bernier before he went out with a lower-body injury. He should turn his attention to an old friend in L.A. for help now.
If Bernier’s out for any significant length of time, that’s one more door that closes on Colorado’s search for netminding insurance. Maybe GM Joe Sakic needs to call his former teammate (and surfing buddy) Rob Blake, who’s running Los Angeles and might be coaxed into parting with Jonathan Quick if they can make the dollars work.
Erik Duhatschek, The Athletic
I love this idea. Colorado has been apprehensive for too long at the deadline and need to do something big. The Golden Knights are humming in the West and have two great goalies. Sakic needs to give up a piece of his young roster or prospect pool and get Quick in an Avs uniform.
NHL Rumors: Blackhawks ready to be trade deadline deal facilitators
The Chicago Blackhawks are ready to take a page out of the rebuild book from clubs like Detroit. They want to use their ample cap space for valuable prospects or draft picks. Frank Seravalli explained on Insider Trading that they’d be willing to even play third wheel to help teams in need of cap space to fit players.
“[Blackhawks] have let it be known that they’re a team that’s willing to take on bad contracts,” he said. “They have almost 22 million in LTIR space which is essentially use or lose. If it isn’t taking on a bad contract, they could be used to facilitate a trade and eat some cap space to make a deal go through.”
TSN Insider Trading
Now word out of Chicago is that GM Stan Bowman has already begun having these conversations. As the trade deadline draws near expect more of them.
“I don’t know if you would call us a seller or a buyer,” Bowman said. “We’re willing to do a little bit of both, but we’re not going to sell off players we think have a future for us. We’re trying to add players that we think can be part of our future. I don’t think we’re going to be looking for rental players who will be here a couple of months and having to give up some top young assets to do it.”
Chicago Sun Times
So now teams that are looking to the Hawks for help with their cap space know the price they will have to pay to get access to it.
NHL Rumors: San Jose Sharks looking to reset
Erik Karlsson isn’t going to like this, but word out of San Jose is that they will be “resetting” the roster and giving younger players more ice time and opportunities.
“Obviously, I did not sign here to go through a rebuild or go through what I did for 10 years in Ottawa,” the 30-year-old defenseman said. “But it is what it is. I think that we need to find a way to build with a core group that we have here and figure out a way how to be competitive here in the upcoming years.”
Karlsson via NHL.com
Sharks GM Doug Wilson however is now on record with the exact direction he’s going to take.
“For very simple reasons. We were gonna reset,” Wilson said when asked why the Sharks weren’t buyers over the offseason. “That meant giving our younger player the opportunities. That’s the mode that we’re in right now. You want the Patty Marleaus, the Stef Noesens, the Marcus Sorensens, but you want opportunities for our young players to play. That is the mode that we’re in. We wanted to make sure that we replenished our system in the draft and that’s why we used all nine of those picks. We didn’t use those picks to go get players from the outside.”
NBC Sports
Back to Karlsson, if he doesn’t like it he better get used to it. His contract is just not trade friendly. Even if he waives his no-move clause what team will take on six more years with an $11.5 million AAV? The teams that have cap room aren’t contenders so why would Karlsson waive to go to Detroit? Whether he likes it or not, it appears Karlsson is stuck in San Jose.