With expansion no longer something that general managers need to be planning around this season, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic told TSN 690 (audio link) that there should be more trade activity in 2017-18 than there was last year:
“I was talking to a GM today and we were saying this might be more active a trade year than last season because the Vegas expansion process kind of suffocated the trade market last year (during the season, that is). Obviously, we had fireworks in the offseason. But before the trade deadline, not quite as crazy a year. And now teams don’t have to worry about that. It’s something they don’t have to sweat. I think it’ll liberate some teams.”
Of course, the trade market is rarely robust at this time of the year as most teams will want to wait at least a month or so to assess what they have and what they need before looking to make deals although there is likely to be a trade or two in the coming days as teams look to finalize their rosters before Tuesday’s opening roster deadline. In the same interview, LeBrun suggests Montreal and San Jose as teams to watch for as they both lost a significant player in the summer and have plenty of cap space to work with while St. Louis may be doing something soon with their slew of injuries.
Elsewhere around the league:
- Senators center Derick Brassard has been cleared for contact by team doctors, notes Postmedia’s Ken Warren. He underwent shoulder surgery back in June and was expected to be out four-to-five months and it appears that he will be back in the lineup at the four-month mark when Ottawa takes on Washington in the regular season opener on Thursday night.
- The Avalanche have called a press conference for Monday where it’s expected that they will officially announce a new AHL affiliation with the Colorado Eagles, reports BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater. The affiliation would come into effect starting in the 2018-19 season so the Avs would maintain their current affiliation with AHL San Antonio for the upcoming season while the Eagles will remain as an ECHL franchise for 2017-18.
- Following their game on Friday, the Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Scherbak and goaltenders Zach Fucale and Michael McNiven were all re-assigned to Laval (AHL). All three players had previously been cut during training camp but were called up for insurance purposes.