Has Phillip Danault asked for a trade?
Marco D’Amico: Sources have indicated that Los Angeles Kings forward Phillip Danault has asked for a trade, and his side hopes something can get done before the vacation trade freeze (midnight of December twentieth).
The Kings are usually not in a rush, and aren’t on the lookout for a futures deal, they’d like a player-for-player deal.
The Montreal Canadiens, Latest Jersey Devils, and Carolina Hurricanes are among the many teams which have kicked tires.
Allan Walsh: (Danault’s agent) “You never bothered to examine with me.”
NHL Rumors: Toronto Maple Leafs Searching for a Top-4 Defenseman and Top-Six Forward
The St. Louis Blues don’t have any untouchables, but GM Doug Armstrong isn’t giving anyone away
Lou Korac of The Hockey News: The St. Louis Blues aren’t going to make any trades for the sake of constructing a trade, and so they aren’t going to offer anyone away.
“Again, I don’t want to return across like … whenever you’re on this position, like Wayne Gretzky got traded,” Armstrong said. “There’s really no untouchables – not on the St. Louis Blues – there’s really few untouchables within the league … Sid (Crosby), Connor (McDavid), Nate (MacKinnon).
But there’s a whole lot of other guys that, when things aren’t going well, that list grows, I’d say. Things aren’t going well, so the list couldn’t be where, ‘No, we could never ever consider that.’ What I need to make sure that you guys know, we’re not selling $.50 cents on the dollar out of anger.”
The Blues have struggled this season and teams are calling. GM Doug Armstrong wouldn’t be doing his job if he weren’t listening.
“Yeah, just like the NHL as we comprehend it, we work on deadline and artificial deadlines,” Armstrong said. “We have now a synthetic deadline Dec. 19, the trade freeze. Again, I’m just using my very own experiences, whenever you’re a high-functioning team, this offers you a reason to call a low-functioning team to set the table for whenever you’re actually going to do it.
NHL Rumors: Latest Jersey Devils, and the Buffalo Sabres
So yeah, teams are beginning to kick tires and beginning to ask where we’re at, and we’re saying, ‘We’re actually not pleased with where we’re at. What are your ideas?’ If it made sense today, we’d do it today, but a whole lot of it’s, ‘Well, I’m not there yet, but keep me within the loop.’ That artificial deadline will go away on Dec. 19 and we’ll put the subsequent artificial deadline, which can likely be a bit bit before the Olympics, after which the actual deadline will are available in in March.”
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