TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston joins Gino Reda to discuss the Maple Leafs’ confidence they can make some moves before the deadline, the growing interest in Blues centre Robert Thomas, where things stand with a potential Colton Parayko trade to the Sabres and the latest with Vincent Trocheck.
Reda: It’s crunch time on the NHL trade front. Are the Leafs going to get anything before their pending UFAs leave at the end of the year? What’s the latest on the Robert Thomas sweepstakes? Is Parayko going to green light the move to Buffalo? There’s so much to talk about. Details on these stories and more with our insider, Chris Johnston.
CJ, the worst-case scenario for the Leafs would be to see guys walk out the door at the end of the season and get nothing in return. What’s the latest on that front out of Toronto?
Johnston: I think Brad Treliving and his staff would agree with your assessment there. That would be the worst-case scenario. And they’re pretty confident, even though that offers have been a little slow to this juncture, at least until Thursday morning, that they’re still going to be able to get some selling done.
And there’s a good reason for that. First of all, they’ve got the players, I think, that they can move on this market. Guys like Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton, who are pending UFAs, a pretty reliable defenceman in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, all three of those players, of course, scratched on Wednesday night in New Jersey for roster-related reasons.
But on top of the players themselves they’re selling, the Leafs have a lot of flexibility. They have all three spots remaining where they can retain salary on up to three players. They also have a lot of cap space, Gino, and I think that they have an ability to take back contracts if that’s something that will help juice a return or perhaps get a deal across the finish line.
And so look at the deal that went down between Chicago and Edmonton on Wednesday night, where the Blackhawks took on Andrew Mangiapane’s contract, held back half of Jason Dickinson’s in order to get a first-round pick. The Leafs are willing to do trades of that sort.
In fact, they did talk to Edmonton, I’m told, before that deal went down with Dickinson, and they were willing to take back Mangiapane as an example. So, the Leafs feel they have flexibility from that standpoint to get some of these moves moving. And also, of course, they have a number of players out there on the trade market.
Reda: While the Leafs have crashed this year, CJ, the Sabres have charged. They’ve now become a serious threat in the East, just two points behind the division-leading Lightning as we’re talking right now. And they’re even looking, trying to add desperately. We’ll get to Colton Parayko in a second.
But first, what about Robert Thomas? The Sabres and Blues have been talking for days. Have they both moved on from this because they can’t get it done? Or is it now a matter of waiting to see who blinks first?
Johnston: It’s not clear if it has to be Buffalo, to me anyways, on Robert Thomas. I still think the Utah Mammoth are probably the team we should be looking at if Thomas moves by Friday’s deadline. There’s been a lot of interest from the Mammoth. The asking price was a little too rich for them earlier in the week, but perhaps as we get closer to 3 p.m. ET on Friday, that price changes or something changes on the Utah side of the equation.
This is a unique type of player to move at this deadline. We know that the Blues and Doug Armstrong, the general manager, often like to test the market, see what their guys are worth, and they don’t always end up trading them.
But there’s a different kind of feel, I would say, around St. Louis this year. There’s a change coming in their front office with Alex Steen taking over for Doug Armstrong as GM at the end of the year and sort of a sense that he would like to set up his successor for success by turning things over a little bit. And there’s just been a lot of interest in Thomas. So today is a key day, I would say, Thursday, for these Thomas talks.
As we’ve learned in the Parayko situation, when a player has a no-trade clause, or perhaps the Tyler Myers situation in Vancouver earlier in the week, sometimes it takes some time for that player to think through his options. And Robert Thomas does have a no-trade clause.
So, whether it’s Buffalo, Utah, or somebody else, I think the deal has to get finalized on Thursday in order to give the player some time to digest the news and decide if he’s going to waive his no-trade clause to see it happen.
Reda: Alright, let’s get back to Parayko. The word obviously is that that deal to Buffalo is done as long as he agrees to the move. What are you hearing out of the camp of the Olympic silver medalist?
Johnston: There’s a lot of mixed signals right now, and it’s a tough one to get a firm handle on.
There are people out there that believe he is ultimately going to green light this deal and waive it once he goes through this period of thinking things through. But there have been some other voices here saying it’s not. And so, I’m not going to guess at this stage.
But it’s pretty unusual to have a situation like this where you have a trade being out there in the public. Our Darren Dreger broke it on Wednesday – broke the news of the fact the Sabres and Blues had reached this agreement pending Parayko signing off on it. And to be sitting here more than 12 hours later where it’s still hanging out in the air is a little strange.
You have to think that, given everything, that the Blues will find a way to make this work. But whether it’s in Buffalo or if it has to be somewhere else, I mean, this is a big meatball just hanging out there. And as the time passes, I think there’s a little bit more doubt about whether Parayko will in fact green light the move.
Reda: Alright, CJ, I don’t want to keep you away from your phone too long, but one more guy I want to talk about, New York Rangers centreman Vincent Trocheck. He’s No.1 on our Trade Bait board. He comes in with term, this year and two more at $5.625 million per season. What’s the word there?
Johnston: Well, the ask right now, it’s still deemed a bit too rich for some of the contenders. And what I can tell you on Thursday morning is the Minnesota Wild, for the time being at least, who have largely been seen as the favourite to get Trocheck, they’ve stepped back in these talks. And that’s not to say it can’t get going again between now and Friday. This is a negotiation. We are at a time where everything is quite fluid in the marketplace.
But it is kind of hanging out there as a possibility. The Rangers might not be able to get the ask needed to move on from Trocheck. We should note the Rangers do play the Maple Leafs on Thursday night. Head coach Mike Sullivan said his entire team is a game-time decision. So it remains to be seen if Trocheck will actually be in uniform on this night or if it will be perhaps him being a roster-related scratch for the Rangers.
But right now, it seems that New York’s having a difficult time quite getting the price they’re looking for. And there are multiple centremen out there, whether it’s Thomas, Nazem Kadri as well, for teams to look at. And ultimately, the Minnesota Wild have made a big move already in season, getting Quinn Hughes, trading a lot of their futures in that package. They’ve made a couple smaller deals here of late. And they don’t necessarily feel they have to go big-game hunting if they find the price not to their liking.
Reda: Trade talk and the news continues to flow in. You can follow CJ, Pierre and Dregs on social media all day long. Then they’ll have a full recap of the day’s activities live on the early edition of SportsCentre.
