Will the Canadiens target Kyle Turris?
Sportsnet: After not getting Sebastian Aho what will the Montreal Canadiens do? They will likely not go after Brayden Point as the cost will be a lot higher than Aho and an offer sheet will likely cost Montreal 4 first round picks.
The Canadiens will unlikely offer sheet anyone else, will GM Marc Bergevin turn his attention to Kyle Turris of the Nashville Predators? Elliotte Friedman speculated that he might be inclined to given Nashville’s desire to clear some cap space after inking centre Matt Duchene to a seven-year, $56-million contract.
Turris is a 29-year-old righty who scored at least 50 points in each of the two seasons prior to this past one. He’s also a player who carries a $6-million cap hit through 2024. Perhaps the Canadiens can use their abundance of cap space — they have close to $12 million available with 23 players signed to their NHL roster — to entice Nashville to throw in another asset for taking on the full weight of Turris’s contract.
What will the Vegas Golden Knights do with Nikita Gusev?
TSN: A wide gap exists in contract talks between the Vegas Golden Knights and restricted free agent Nikita Gusev, leading the team to consider trade options for the Russian forward.
Both sides are looking for a two-year deal, but remain as far as $2 million apart in average annual value.
“There’s definitely an interest in him,” McPhee said. “We’ve had people call us on him. We’ll see what develops. I can’t tell you what will happen, but we’ll work on it. He’s been very, very good on the international stage. He wants to play in the NHL. He worked very hard to get over here, and we’re going to accommodate him one way or another, either here or with another club.”
The Golden Knights have roughly $3 million in cap space with backup goaltender Malcolm Subban and defenceman Jimmy Schuldt also in need of new deals as restricted free agents. Granger believes Vegas could find the necessary cap space to sign all three players by trading forward Ryan Reaves and defenceman Nick Holden or by moving Cody Eakin, who is entering the final year of his deal.
