Blue Jackets listening to offers on both goalies
TSN: There are plenty of goaltenders that are on the trade market and ones that are going to be free agents. Pierre LeBrun says that the Columbus Blue Jackets are listening to offers on both Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins.
“Both who had breakout years, both who see themselves as No. 1 goalies and both had good moments in the playoffs. And the reason for it is, you know eventually there won’t be enough net for both of these guys and that they are No. 1 goalies. So Columbus is listening, it doesn’t mean they’ll move them but if they do move them they’d like to acquire a top-two centre.”
Red Wings will look at the free agent goalie market, talking to teams daily
Nicholas Cotsonika of NHL.com: The Detroit Red Wings have told pending free agent goaltender Jimmy Howard that they won’t be offering him a new contract before the start of free agency.
Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman :
“There are several that today look like they’ll be on the market next week, and we’ll look to fill the position with that,”
The UFA goalie market includes Craig Anderson, Corey Crawford, Aaron Dell, Brian Elliott, Thomas Greiss, Braden Holtby, Anton Khudobin, Robin Lehner, Henrik Lundqvist, Jacob Markstrom, Ryan Miller, Mike Smith and Cam Talbot.
“Without to talk to free agents, we have to wait until Oct. 9 to really get a good feel for where there’s a fit for interest of these players and the parameters of contracts,” Yzerman said. “So we’ll get a better idea next week.”
Yzerman added that he’s talking to teams every day. Teams are looking to do different things. There is a lot of uncertainty with teams. Some are trying to shed salary.
“You talk to some of the clubs that … from our position, teams that need to make some moves based on the salary cap and see if there’s a fit to do any of those things. So how much actually gets accomplished, I don’t know. But I know we’ll all be kind of working the phone.”
Yzerman said they are talking with pending RFAs Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha. Other RFAs include Madison Bowey, Christoffer Ehn, Adam Erne, Brendan Perlini and Dmytro Timashov. They are deciding on whether to send out qualifying offers or not.
“We’ve got some time to make that decision, and truthfully we’re just kind of weighing what, if any, options there are before we make those final decisions.”
