Montour and Miller could be on their way out of Buffalo with Ristolainen staying
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: There seemed to a disconnect this season between Buffalo Sabres coach Ralph Krueger and then GM Jason Botterill.
Botterill brought in Brandon Montour and Colin Miller and neither fit in Krueger. New GM Kevyn Adams will look to add some help at forward this offseason and could use Montour and Miller as trade bait. Krueger wouldn’t play Jeff Skinner with Jack Eichel, something that Botterill wouldn’t have been happy with after signing him to the big deal last offseason.
Krueger really likes defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, so there is a good chance he remains.
Potential targets for the Devils blue line
Corey Masisak of The Athletic: The New Jersey Devils will look to improve on the blue line according to a interim GM Tom Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald in a interview a couple of weeks ago.
“I definitely think we need to look at the back end,” Fitzgerald said. “Size, and some hardness, with the ability to move pucks. I don’t think we need anything flashy. I just think we need more of a presence back there. I don’t know who’s going to be out there. You can look at the potential list and get all excited about one player or another player, but at the end of the day things change and we’ve got so much time. Until then, I don’t want to get caught up in maybe potential candidates. But, yeah, I do believe we need to look at that and become a bigger and harder defense corps to play against.”
Potential trade and free agent targets that would be “good options” for the Devils
Josh Manson – Anaheim Ducks – two years at $4.1 million
Colin Miller – Buffalo Sabres – two years at $3.875 million
Jake McCabe – Buffalo Sabres – one-year at $2.85 million
David Savard – Columbus Blue Jackets – one-year at $4.25 million
T. J. Brodie – Calgary Flames – Unrestricted free agent
Adam Pelech – New York Islanders – one-year at $1.6 million
Vince Dunn – St. Louis Blues – RFA
Alex Pietrangelo – St. Louis Blues – UFA
Mikhail Sergachev – Tampa Bay Lightning – RFA
Erik Cernak – Tampa Bay Lightning – RFA
“Maybe good options?” for the Devils include
Ilya Lyubushkin – Arizona Coyotes – RFA
Trevor van Riemsdyk – Carolina Hurricanes – UFA
Olli Maatta – Chicago Blackhawks – two years at $4.083 million
Connor Murphy – Chicago Blackhawks – two years at $3.85 million
Jamie Oleksiak – Dallas Stars – one-year at $2.138 million
Patrick Nemeth – Detroit Red Wings – one-year at $3 million
Josh Brown – Florida Panthers – RFA
Ben Hutton – Los Angeles Kings – UFA
Brandon Davidson – San Jose Sharks – UFA
Robert Bortuzzo – St. Louis Blues – two-years at $1.375 million
John Merrill – Vegas Golden Knights – UFA
Nick Holden – Vegas Golden Knights – two-years at $1.7 million
Dylan DeMelo – Winnipeg Jets – UFA
Brenden Dillon – Washington Capitals – UFA
Radko Gudas – Washington Capitals – UFA
Jonas Siegenthaler – Washington Capitals – RFA
