A mystery team was talking with the Devils
TSN: The New Jersey Devils were talking trade with a mystery team and the trade talks went pretty far according to Pierre LeBrun.
“At the end of the day, we know they went back to the Arizona deal but it was serious enough in conversation that a delay ended up happening with the trade to the Coyotes. I can’t tell you for sure who that mystery team is, but I can say this: we have a strong suspicion that the Calgary Flames – who we know inquired on Taylor Hall – made a pretty strong offer.”
The Coyotes don’t plan on having any in-season contract talks
TSN: Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka said they don’t plan on talking contract extension with Taylor Hall until after the season.
“I felt like without him knowing us, our organization, myself, teammates, our staff here, what it’s like to live in Arizona, it didn’t really make a lot of sense to try to discuss what a contract extension would look like,” Chayka said. “We want Taylor Hall to want to be in Arizona and the only way for him to be that way is to actually be in Arizona, in our opinion.
“We’re not going to discuss anything contractually until the end of the season. I want him focused on playing.”
Oilers have started Kassian talks … Nurse will be a tougher negotiation
TSN: Bob McKenzie said that the Rick Curran, Matt Kassian’s agent, met with Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland on Monday to start their contract extension talks. Talks are only in the preliminary stages but they hope to get something worked out in the next couple weeks. Kassian will be looking for a multi-year deal.
Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse is a restricted free agent and could be a harder negotiation than Kassian.
“He wants to stay in Edmonton, no doubt about that, but you can’t do a six, seven or eight-year deal because the numbers would just be too big especially in year one and year two when the Oilers have some cap problems for the next couple of seasons. It could be a four or a five-year deal. It could. Could it also be maybe a two-year deal? It starts to get really complicated and keep in mind he’s got salary arbitration rights. If it’s only a two-year deal, maybe he just does salary arb. This will be one to keep an eye on over the next few weeks as well.”