As many as 12 teams are interested in acquiring Coyotes center Martin Hanzal, ESPN’s Craig Custance reports (Insider required). Among those teams are Minnesota and San Jose, who Custance argues should be aggressive on the trade market over the next month given how wide open the Western Conference appears to be right now.
Hanzal’s situation has been well documented. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent with a cap hit of just $3.1MM, making him an affordable option for most teams. At 6’6, he can match up physically with any center in the league and he’s one of the better players league-wide at the faceoff dot, winning over 55% of his draws.
Accordingly, the asking price for him is quite high despite having a down year offensively with just 19 points (10-9-19) in 41 games. GM John Chayka continues to seek a first round pick plus a quality prospect, a price that teams have deemed to be too steep so far.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- The NHL and NHLPA will be meeting with representatives from the IOC and the IIHF regarding potential participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics tomorrow, Sportsnet’s John Shannon notes (Twitter link). Commissioner Gary Bettman has been adamant that the position of the majority of the owners do not want to stop the season next year to go to South Korea but no final decision has been made. IIHF President Rene Fasel has secured the funding to cover the travel costs and insurance for the participating players if they do go after the IOC decided it would no longer pay those costs.
- Although the Blackhawks have been active on the trade market leading up to the deadline in past seasons, GM Stan Bowman told CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers that he doesn’t expect to make a deal this year. He noted that he’s quite happy with the progression of several young players and is hoping they’ll continue to improve down the stretch. It’s worth noting that Chicago is hosting the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and they would like to hold onto as many picks as possible and currently are projected to have just under $1.8MM in cap space at the deadline, per CapFriendly which will limit who they’re able to go after.
- Penguins center Matt Cullen is expected to get the first chance to fill in for the injured Conor Sheary on Sidney Crosby’s left wing, notes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Head coach Mike Sullivan suggests that Cullen’s defensive ability will be able to ease some of the responsibility off of Crosby. With 17 points in 43 games as predominantly a bottom six forward, Cullen should be able to pick up some of the offensive void left by Sheary (who has 35 points in 42 games) as well.