Do the Sharks move Tomas Hertl? Do the Predators move Filip Forsberg?
Matt Porter of the Boston Globe: San Jose Sharks center Tomas Hertl wonders if they are interested in re-signing him. He is in the last year of his deal at $5.625 million and has a three-year trade list.
It’s doubtful the Sharks would be able to find a taker for Evander Kane (four years at $7 million) or Marc-Edouard Vlasic (five years at $7 million).
Nashville Predators Filip Forsberg is entering the final year of his contract at $6 million. Would think the GM David Poile may explore the idea of moving the 27-year old for some younger players. This past offseason they moved out veterans Ryan Ellis and Viktor Arvidsson.
Can the Maple Leafs afford Morgan Rielly?
Chris Johnston of the Toronto Star: Morgan Rielly is entering the final season of his contract and is eligible for a contract extension. This past offseason has seen offensive defenseman that can eat minutes earn big contracts. Will this create a scenario where the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t afford to re-sign Rielly?
There have only been a couple of brief talks between the Maple Leafs and Rielly’s reps so far.
Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, Cale Makar and Dougie Hamilton all signed for over $9 million this offseason. Though they are not perfect comparables, but can’t see Rielly signing for under $8 million.
GM Kyle Dubas has already said that if the Maple Leafs don’t have a successful playoff run that changes could be coming.
Will the Leaf’s wait to see how the season starts before picking up extension talks with Rielly’s camp or will they go the Zach Hyman, Frederik Andersen path and treat Rielly as their own rental?
GM Kyle Dubas on Bob McCown’s podcast about teams letting UFAs go as the salary cap won’t be increasing much over the next couple of years.
“I think you’re going to see more and more of that because you can’t just extend the players and hope that you’re going to figure out the cap stuff later. The cap isn’t going to go anywhere so you’re going to, I think, see a lot more guys playing out their UFA seasons,”
The Maple Leafs would love to get Rielly extended to something close to Colton Parayko and Torey Krug‘s deals – $6.5 million. That would be below market value.
