{"id":610694,"date":"2026-06-30T02:36:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/610694\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T02:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:36:22","slug":"east-notes-quinn-gritsyuk-ersson-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/610694\/","title":{"rendered":"East Notes: Quinn, Gritsyuk, Ersson \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Sabres are \u201cactively dangling\u201d forward Jack Quinn<\/a> in trade talks, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported today<\/a>. Buffalo appears to be aggressively pursuing upgrades to its roster this summer, and Quinn represents one of the team\u2019s most valuable trade chips. The Sabres acquired the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 draft as part of the Bowen Byram<\/a> trade, but ultimately picked WHL defenseman Daxon Rudolph<\/a> rather than trade the pick for immediate help. That leaves Quinn, who scored 20 goals and 51 points last season, as one of the team\u2019s most attractive trade assets.<\/p>\n

Given that the draft happened just a few days ago, the Sabres might find building trades around players, rather than draft picks, to be an easier proposition. That could be why the team\u2019s focus on Quinn as trade bait appears to have intensified. Financial motivations could be playing a role as well. The Sabres have shelled out significant cap space in the past few weeks, signing players such as Zach Benson<\/a> and Beck Malenstyn<\/a> to long-term extensions. Quinn is set to become an RFA next summer and will likely require a significant raise over his current $3.75MM cap hit. If the Sabres don\u2019t think they\u2019ll have the room to re-sign Quinn next summer, and would rather turn over his role to a younger, cheaper prospect such as Konsta Helenius<\/a> or Jiri Kulich<\/a>, trading Quinn with one year left on his deal could be the wisest strategic move.<\/p>\n

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Devils are nearing an agreement on a contract extension with pending RFA forward Arseni Gritsyuk<\/a>, reports James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now<\/a>. According to Nichols, Gritsyuk\u2019s new deal \u201cshould be wrapped up soon,\u201d perhaps in the next few days. The Devils drafted the 25-year-old in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, and he finally crossed the Atlantic to make his NHL debut after a half-decade playing in the KHL. The former SKA St. Petersburg star potted 13 goals and 31 points in 66 games for the Devils, and has lined himself up for a substantial raise over the $925K cap hit of his entry-level contract.
\nAlthough the Ottawa Senators did not extend a qualifying offer to netminder Samuel Ersson<\/a> before today\u2019s deadline, the team still hopes to re-sign the goalie for the 2026-27 season and beyond, per Postmedia\u2019s Bruce Garrioch<\/a>. According to Garrioch, it \u201cwould be surprising if [Ersson] doesn\u2019t get signed.\u201d The reason the Senators did not qualify Ersson appears to be arbitration \u2013 had he been qualified, Ersson would have been able to file for arbitration. Arbitration can hand a significant amount of leverage to an RFA in negotiations, or at least remove some control over the compensation owed to the player out of the club\u2019s hands. The Senators\u2019 decision signals that the club would still like to keep Ersson after trading a fifth-rounder for him last week, but aren\u2019t willing to accept the level of risk that comes with a potential arbitration filing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres are \u201cactively dangling\u201d forward Jack Quinn in trade talks, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[15542,229,5,4022,151,4,72,25,5157,5360,73],"class_list":["post-610694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa-senators","tag-arseni-gritsyuk","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-hockey","tag-jack-quinn","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-ottawasenators","tag-samuel-ersson","tag-senators"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116836734330195717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610694","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=610694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}