Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Morning Skate Segment and was asked about where John Gibson could get traded. Pagnotta stated the Edmonton Oilers could go after Gibson but that will depend on the status of Evander Kane.
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Gord Stellick: “So we’re talking earlier, another strong performance by John Gibson and a win over Tampa Bay yesterday (Sunday). You get a sense he’s going to get traded. We’ve talked about it for years. I don’t know if Colorado is satisfied with the moves they’ve made, but do you think he will get traded by the trade deadline? If so, are there one or two destinations you have in mind?”
Dave Pagnotta: “It seems, even though they’re on the upswing, and they’re starting to get things going here, it certainly seems like it’s much more realistic now to see him move on than it has been in the past. We know he’s been available for years. Obviously, they didn’t want to give him away, and don’t want to give him away. There’s still a lot of talent there. He’s only 31, but now he has two more years left in his contract; after this season, with a $6.4 million cap hit.
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The Ducks are in a position where they’re willing to retain now on that deal, it makes it more palatable to move on and spend that extra money. Obviously, will depend on the return, but we’ll certainly see how they kind of navigate this, and Carolina’s had interest in the past.
Edmonton’s had interest in the past. I’ve got to imagine, at some point they’ll kind of circle back. The Oilers are going to look to add on defense, and they also want to have a bit of an understanding a nd I think over the next week or two, they’re going to reevaluate Evander Kane’s health status and see where he’s at. They need to know if a, he’s coming back in the regular season or not, and B, if he’s not, and if he is out until the playoffs, there’s $5.25 million in LTIR space they could utilize.
They’ve got a little bit of cap space now so they can exceed it a little bit more and continue to accrue. But they need to know if Evander Kane is going to be able to play the rest of this regular season or not. So that’s something to kind of keep tabs on here over the next couple of weeks as they try to evaluate his status. That’s going to play a factor into the type of moves that they could potentially make if he is done for the regular season, not only are they going to look to improve their D and have the ability to spend more dollars on the blue line, they may even be a little bit more aggressive than that.
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And if that does happen, I wouldn’t be surprised if they at least they can inquire with respect to John Gibson, but Carolina is going to be another team that’s going to poke around on that as well, and we saw (Cam) Fowler get moved out to St Louis. It certainly would not surprise me at all if we do see a Gibson-type deal later on in the season, ahead of that March 7 deadline.”
Scott Laughlin: “We look forward to the next couple of weeks and couple of months leading up to March 7 to see if there’s any movement there, with regards to a franchise stalwart in John Gibson out there in Anaheim.”