Dreger on trade potential of Coyotes' Vermette, Yandle, Hanzal, Doan

Darren Dreger was on Edmonton’s TSN 1260 on Thursday morning.

On if anyone outside of Oliver Ekman-Larsson survives the rebuild of the Arizona Coyotes:

“Well, I think Maloney has been told he needs to listen to just about everything. And the time is now. I’m not suggesting it’s an open fire sale yet. Maloney is going to hold his cards tight to his chest and play that game of poker, perhaps right up to the trade deadline. He’s waiting for that right deal for Antoine Vermette. That rumour has been out there since the start of the year, because he’s a pending unrestricted free agent. And I believe that he’ll get traded before the deadline.

“For me what’s most interesting is what they intend on doing with Keith Yandle. Again, another name that always surfaces in trade speculation. But there are a number of teams who would love to get their hands on Keith Yandle. But if it’s about getting younger, and I know that’s the direction of new ownership Andrew Barroway to management in Arizona, are you not best-suited to just hold tight? Just see how things go this season unless somebody blows your doors off on one of those key guys, and see how much more flexibility there is on the draft floor.

“Look at the Conference standings right now. The Arizona Coyotes have some work to do to fall down. They’re eight points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers in terms of last place in the Western Conference, so maybe they’re going to have to use one of those pieces like a Keith Yandle to improve their draft position. But that most definitely is the direction from Barroway. Get younger. Cut some payroll in the process. Let’s have a real good draft, identify a piece that we can build around and utilize, hopefully as a franchise guy, and work for long-term success.”

Would Martin Hanzal be available? He seems so intriguing.

“Yeah, he is intriguing. There are a ton of teams that would show interest in him. Honestly, when you sit down with ownership, and ownership wants you to define direction, and their want is to get younger and cheaper, at least on the short term to build against that long-term platform of success, I think you have to consider just about anything. Just about anything.

“Again, Ekman-Larsson – he’s not going anywhere. But Martin Hanzal, Keith Yandle, guys like that – I think absolutely Maloney will have to consider.

On if Shane Doan would consider waiving that no-trade clause if he were told this is a rebuild, despite the fact he’s never shown any inclination to leave Arizona:

“He might. There have always been rumblings around Shane Doan. And give full credit to this guy. I mean, he has been a stoic leader on a team that has faced every single level of adversity, both on the ice and off the ice. Yet he’s been there in the community and he’s taken the blows and he’s hung in there.

“But he’s at the end of his run. And so it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it, that if this is the direction that they’re going, if they creep closer to the trade deadline, they go to Doaner and they say, ‘Look, are you in this? There’s another rebuild coming down the pathway here. Or would you like us to see what’s available to you among those contenders who are legitimately trying to make a run for a Stanley Cup here?’

“If they haven’t had that conversation, I’d be shocked if they don’t have it between now and early March.”

Source: TSN 1260/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

Nichols on Hockey

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Nichols on Hockey

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