NHL Insiders Trade Rumors Information
According to NHL Insiders Bob McKenzie the Florida Panthers and general manager Dale Tallon have made young defensemen Dmitry Kulikov available but now have kicked it up a notch and are pursuing aggressively other teams who may interested in his defensemen trying to build an auction style environment. Kulikov who’s only 23 years-old and was drafted in the first round, fourteenth overall at the NHL Entry Draft of 2008 has not met the expectations from management. Mackenzie stated tow things are playing against him: first, is the fact he hasn’t played and developed to his full potential and second there are rumblings he could be headed in the KHL next year. So the team receiving Kulikov could be inheriting a player destined to stay with them only this year. He will be a restricted free agent next summer.
Darren Dreger also mentioned in that segment of NHL Insiders that the teams who are the most active are currently the New York Islanders, the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers. You could also add to Dreger’s statement the Carolina Hurricanes as we reported recently on here. According to Dreger, the Islanders are mainly looking at depth in goal and defence while the Canucks have some interest in Martin Erat out in Washington, but Washington would like a top six forward. Meanwhile the Edmonton Oilers are looking for a solid top four defenseman.
Reiterating the fact on Carolina, Bob McKenzie added that the Carolina Hurricanes are also very active. Jim Rutherford who’s Carolina, general manager is actively shopping Tim Gleason (reported last week and yesterday), Tuumo Ruutu and possibly Jiri Tlusty. Rutherford known to be very patient, in general has shown signs of impatience. At this time head coach Kirk Muller is not in danger to be fired but if the team is taking a nose dive, Rutherford may be tempted to make a change with Muller and also some roster changes as well.
Finally Pierre Lebrun stated that the Colorado Avalanche are offering winger Jamie McGinn and the Colaro Avalanche are looking in adding a defenseman or a solid checking forward to support the offensive players such as Paul Statsny, Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchesne. Right now, the name of McGinn has been offered to a couple teams in the league. Also keep in mind the Habs have been spying the Avalanche on many occasions and could be a team interested.
