TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders on the Ottawa Senators\u2019 remaining resilient, Anthony Stolarz nearing a return with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Calgary Flames and Nazem Kadri\/Blake Coleman, New York Rangers GM Chris Drury meeting with his \u2018no move\u2019 players, and the San Jose Sharks\u2019 options with Kiefer Sherwood.<\/p>\n
Gino Reda: With the insiders Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger. Gentleman, Linus Ullmark\u2019s candid interview with Claire Hanna was emotional, frank, and a reminder to us all to respect each other\u2019s boundaries and mental health. Darren, where do Ullmark and the Sens go from here?<\/p>\n
Darren Dreger: Well, there\u2019s no official timeline, but you\u2019re right, Gino. It\u2019s been a very emotional time for Linus Ullmark, his family, his friends, and that includes his teammates and the Ottawa Senators as an organization. <\/p>\n
Ullmark is back with the team. There\u2019s no pressure on when he gets back into the crease, but Ottawa is hopeful that he\u2019ll be able to return later this week. In the meantime, top-to-bottom support for Ullmark from all of the team. <\/p>\n
I can also tell you, despite all the stuff going on off the ice, general manager Steve Staios is working as hard as he can to improve the roster. He\u2019s being aggressive; there\u2019s nothing that\u2019s front burner at this point, but they want to keep the focus where it needs to be, and that\u2019s back on the ice.<\/p>\n
Reda: Elsewhere, after more than two months away from the team, Anthony Stolarz is heading to the minors for a conditioning stint. What do the Leafs do when he\u2019s ready to come back, CJ?<\/p>\n
Chris Johnston: Well, there\u2019s very little appetite to have a three-headed goalie monster in Toronto, and so with Dennis Hildeby being waiver exempt, I would think when Stolarz is ready to return to the NHL, you\u2019ll see Dennis Hildeby back down with the Marlies. Now, as for Stolarz in the moment, he is on a conditioning loan with the Marlies, but there isn\u2019t an expectation this time that he\u2019s going to play games. <\/p>\n
This is really more about getting him extra practice reps, making sure he has his own net on the ice for those practices, and he\u2019s pushed hard here in the last 2-3 weeks. There\u2019s a lot of optimism; he\u2019s on the cusp of his return to the Leafs, it\u2019s just about getting him a little extra seasoning before he does make that return.<\/p>\n
Reda: We\u2019re just over two weeks from the Olympic trade freeze. What\u2019s the latest out of Calgary Dregs?<\/p>\n
Dreger: I think that the hockey world is looking at teams like the Calgary Flames and wondering what the next move might be. A lot of us are looking at Nazem Kadri among the contenders who could be on the move. What I can tell you is that there are ongoing discussions between Craig Conroy, the general manager, and Nazem Kadri\u2019s camp. <\/p>\n
Now that doesn\u2019t mean that anything is imminent, but Kadri wants to do what\u2019s best for the Flames, and he also wants to win a Stanley Cup. I would say there\u2019s some developing interest, there\u2019s been tire-kicking from Toronto, Montreal, Colorado, LA, maybe the Dallas Stars, but there\u2019s still a lot of work to get done, and there\u2019s no rush as far as Calgary is concerned.<\/p>\n
Pierre LeBrun: I had a chance to speak with Conroy in the wake of the Rasmus Andersson trade and did ask about Kadri and Blake Coleman, the two obvious veterans that people are going to wonder about right up till Mar. 6.<\/p>\n
I think his answer in some ways was revealing; he said, \u201cIt\u2019s a tough one.\u201d He went on to say that he\u2019s not going to say that those guys are definitely not moving, but he\u2019s also open to taking calls. This about the Flames getting younger and continuing to transition that roster. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re quite ready to keep Coleman; he\u2019s an important leader in that dressing room, but they can\u2019t say 100 per cent because there might be an offer that puts it over the top, given the interest that there is on the market for Coleman.<\/p>\n
Reda: Pierre, on Friday, Chris Drury sent a letter to the Rangers fans saying they are moving into a re-tool. What\u2019s that going to look like?<\/p>\n
LeBrun: Well, do we have enough time? I\u2019m just kidding, that\u2019s quite a story coming out of New York. I will say this, Drury met with all the players individually who have no move clauses. Among those players is Artemi Panarin, but J.T. Miller, the captain, his name is already out there, and I\u2019m not quite sure why. <\/p>\n
What I was told today is that Miller has no intention of waiving his no-move clause, and the Rangers have no intention of going to him and asking to waive it. They traded for him last year, they made him captain, and they still believe in the reasons why they made that move. Miller should not be part of whatever exodus of players leaves New York.<\/p>\n
Reda: Guys, when the Sharks acquired Kiefer Sherwood from the Canucks on Monday, they did so with no guarantees of an extension, so what\u2019s the plan there, CJ?<\/p>\n
Johnston: Well, they gave up two second-round picks, and for a team that is in a rebuild, that\u2019s not the outlay they\u2019re going to make expecting him to walk away in free agency. What I can tell you is that the initial conversation didn\u2019t bear much fruit. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s still a pretty big gap between where the Sharks see Sherwood\u2019s next contract going and what he and his agent think is fair. There\u2019s still some work that needs to be done there, and I think Sherwood is comfortable that he can push for as much as $30-million on a long term deal. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s a UFA; he doesn\u2019t have to do anything, of course. We\u2019ll have to see how this develops, but initially, I can tell you there wasn\u2019t much progress on the contract front.<\/p>\n
Reda: Great timing by Sherwood on pace for a career year right when he\u2019s looking for a new long-term deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders on the Ottawa Senators\u2019 remaining resilient, Anthony Stolarz nearing a return with the Toronto Maple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[5,4,32428,72,25,5157,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-418846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-nhl-sports-hockey-league-nhl","11":"tag-ottawa","12":"tag-ottawa-senators","13":"tag-ottawasenators","14":"tag-senators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115930312543748476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}