Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Late-night trade deadline talk from McKenzie, Dreger and LeBrun

03/05/2014 at 1:13am EST

TSN's Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger chatted with the NHL Network's Rob Roe on Tuesday evening, and they made some surprising statements.

  • According to both McKenzie and Dreger, John Tortorella's snub of Roberto Luongo in the Heritage Classic did in fact prompt Luongo's agent, Pat Brisson, to ask if he could speak to several NHL teams about moving his client;
  • The gents also claim that the Canucks want to trade Ryan Kesler and Alex Edler independently of the Luongo situation, with Kesler willing to go to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit Anaheim and possibly other teams (but not the Rangers), and that the Canucks will hold out for the best offer, even if that means trading Kesler at another time;
  • The New York Rangers are still considering re-signing Ryan Callahan, signing and trading him or just trading him;
  • The Buffalo Sabres are at least considering moving Matt Moulson, perhaps to Los Angeles, but Calgary's Mike Camalleri is also another "goal-scoring winger" on the market, as might be Chris Stewart, but the Sabres in particular cannot carry any more salary in making trades;
  • The Sabres may consider moving Christian Ehrhoff or Tyler Myers, and the Red Wings may be interested, specifically in Ehrhoff, but the Wings are in a "transition year," so Ken Holland has to decide whether he's willing to bite on the Sabres' price;
  • And regarding Cammalleri, he, Moulson, Ales Hemsky and Thomas Vanek's futures are somewhat intertwined, with Hemsky and Cammalleri serving as the fall-back plans for the teams that don't land Kesler.

ESPN's Pierre LeBrun also penned a late-evening blog entry updating the Kesler situation, confirming that the Canucks feel no need to "settle" for anything less than their asking price:

The Pittsburgh Penguins -- it’s no secret -- have interest and a source said they once again spoke with Vancouver on Tuesday. ... But to what degree it advanced the discussion, it wasn’t clear.

There’s a sizeable list of teams that have kept tabs on Kesler, including the Anaheim Ducks, who have a number of young assets that might interest the Canucks.

Of course, you wonder would the Canucks really trade Kesler within the same division? The answer we got from one source with knowledge of the situation is that the Canucks don’t care what team it is, they’ll take the best package if it fits their needs.

Kesler of course controls much of his fate via his no-trade clause and there’s a select group of teams he’d rather go to.

I believe both Pittsburgh and Anaheim are among those teams, as well as Detroit.

...

Staying on the Penguins, if the Kesler thing never comes through, a cheaper option up front remains Ales Hemsky from the Oilers. The Penguins and Oilers have spoken about that possibility. Although again, one assumes Pittsburgh would want to see the Kesler situation through first.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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