NHL Rumors: Flyers looking to clear cap space, Senators in on Matt Murray, and Maple Leafs want Pietrangelo
Anthony Scultore
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The NHL rumors are swirling faster as we get closer to the NHL draft which is just two weeks away. Here’s some of the latest news out there. We start in Philadelphia where the Flyers are looking to clear cap space.
NHL Rumors – Philadelphia Flyers
According to The Fourth Period, the Flyers have just about $7.8 million is cap space, and they are trying hard to move James Van Riemsdyk ($7M) and Shayne Gostisbehere ($4.5M).
Flyers GM, Chuck Fletcher has two big RFA’s he’d like to re-sign in Robert Hagg and Philippe Myers. They also want to improve their roster and get a little younger if possible.
NHL Rumors – Senators want Matt Murray as their goalie
Earlier we noted that the Penguins have lowered their demands for Matt Murray and the Senators have enough picks to make a deal. Per the Ottawa Sun:
It’s believed the club is involved in talks for a veteran goaltender, including Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray, and it’s possible one of those selections could be used to help stabilize the net. Columbus and Arizona are also dangling goaltending options on the NHL trade market.
The Senators are in full rebuild mode and are almost $20 million below the cap floor. They need to spend some money and at the same time get assets that are young and fit the plan. Murray does make sense at 26 years of age.
NHL Rumors – Yes, the Leafs want Pietrangelo
The Toronto media is in overdrive with trying to figure out how the Maple Leafs can sign Alex Pietrangelo.
I’ve got to think the Leafs will try to figure out a way, but it’d be really hard to imagine a player in the — guessing here — $9 million annual-average value range fitting in cap-wise with Auston Matthews ($11.634 million), John Tavares ($11 million), Marner ($10.893) and William Nylander ($6.9 million). But Leafs fans can do math as well as anyone apparently, and figured it out. Move Rielly ($5 million) and add it to the cap space they have (in the $4-million to $8-million range depending on contracts for the likes of Travis Dermott and Ilya Mikheyev) and there’s space for Pietrangelo, a game-changing Norris-caliber right-handed defencemen. (He kind of does check all the boxes.)
Toronto Star
You can expect that until Pietrangelo signs somewhere else, the Leafs writers are going to do mental gymnastics to make him fit.