Friedman on Staal, Lupul, Petry, and more NHL trade talk

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Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 960 Monday morning.

T.J. Brodie's contract will be official today: Five-year deal worth an AAV of $4.65 million. 

"When you take a look at the way the market is going right now - I haven't gone through the younger defencemen yet, but I've looked at some of the defensemen who have contracts that will take them into unrestricted free agency. Now that Brodie is signed, and he would have been free at the age of 27, do you know how many defencemen in the next five years of free agency are right now eligible to become unrestricted free agents at age 27 or lower? 

"Six. It's six guys who have been top-four defencemen who over the next five years in free agency, are eligible to hit the market, who have contracts now that take them into their UFA years. And those guys are Cody Franson, Jeff Petry, Luke Schenn, Cam Fowler, Victor Hedman, and there's one other player. And the only guy on that list who you would take over Brodie is probably Hedman. So I think it shows you how many of these defencemen are locked up. How hard it is to get them. And to lock him up at 4.65 is a deal for him and the Flames."

Mark Giordano is eligible to be extended by the Flames this summer. "As long as the will is there, I'm sure they'll have no doubts putting it together. I can't imagine it would be a problem, unless all of the sudden the Flames decide that Mark Giordano isn't for them, or he decides he's not for them." Wideman is highest-paid player now, and Giordano should go to No. 1. 

"I had a couple of guys tell me the Oilers are making fewer calls about trades than you would think. They aren't looking for a goalie. They feel this Fasth injury is not too long-term. Maybe a week or two. If they can get through that. I thought maybe they might take a run at Ilya Bryzgalov. I heard they're not going to do that, since he was there already. I've just been told they are trying to weather the storm."

Also: "I think the only obvious move that you're seeing there is at some point, Jeff Petry is going to be traded."

"I heard Carolina is looking for forwards, but they don't really want to give up assets. They don't really want to give up anything that they look at and say, 'This is going to be part of our future.'

"The Eric Staal thing - I think it's cooled down a little bit. I could see them waiting some time before they do this. However, I do think they are doing their due diligence. I think they're looking at what the situations potentially are and what we could possibly want from teams." 

"Pittsburgh, I heard, is still looking for another scoring winger." 

"You hear Lupul's name here and there in Toronto. I think if they got the right move, they would consider doing that."

Sabres also mentioned "another team to watch potentially" with some guys who have contracts coming up, rather than letting them walk away for nothing.

"Hextall is not going to be that guy" in terms of the Flyers making a panic trade. 

When Flyers were talking with the Florida Panthers for the No. 1 overall pick in the summer, because the Flyers wanted to get Ekblad, Hextall wanted some protection for his pick next year "just in case it's a Top 5." Florida wouldn't do that. 

"He's saying, 'We're not going to be the same old Flyers.' We're going to be patient. We're not giving up our youth. We're not giving up our future for a short-term fix. So I think he's going to govern accordingly. Yes, I think potentially some of his defenseman are available, but he's not making that move if it doesn't make long-term sense."

Luke Schenn - everything he did in Toronto was scrutinized "and his game got picked apart. I think Schenn is a useful defenseman in the NHL. He's not a Top 2 guy but he can still play. But he needs to be in a really structured spot. You need to have a team that plays disciplined. If you're disciplined and he knows what his role is supposed to be and where you need him to be, he'll be fine. If he ever gets caught in a situation where you're trading chances and going up and down the ice, that's going to be a problem. And Toronto traded chances when he was there. And Philly, in a lot of ways, trades chances too. So he'll get exposed periodically. I think Luke Schenn is probably a 4 defenseman and in a right team with a good structure, he can be very useful for you. Other than that, you know what? He gets into trouble periodically. But he's nowhere near as bad as the fans in Toronto made him out to be." 

Source: Sportsnet 960/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey