Morning Notes: Trade Bait, Golden Knights, Hurricanes

TSN’s Frank Seravalli released his updated “trade bait” board, and the name at the top once again is Buffalo’s Evander Kane. Kane was recently involved in a minor altercation at Sabres practice, and has a reported price tag of a first-round pick, prospect and conditional draft pick based on him re-signing with the acquiring team. Though Kane’s deal seems inevitable at this point, several other names on the list are interesting.

Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman appears fourth on the list, and fellow TSN insider Bob McKenzie believes a deal of the scoring forward is “more likely than not” at this point. Seravalli maintains that even though the Vegas Golden Knights are winning, James Neal remains a possible trade candidate, while Patrick Maroon seems like an easy rental piece after the Edmonton Oilers’ struggles this year.

• The US Army has filed a notice of opposition against the Golden Knights trademark, according to Chris Creamer of Sportslogos.net. Creamer has been all over this story since the beginning, noting that both the Army and the College of Saint Rose who each use the Golden Knights name, had filed extensions when the first trademark opposition deadline came about. Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated gives us the Vegas hockey team’s response, in which they “strongly dispute” the idea that there is any confusion between the army parachute team and the NHL club.
• The sale of a majority stake in the Carolina Hurricanes to new owner Thomas Dundon will close today according to Luke DeCock and Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer. Dundon will be purchasing just over 51% of the club, with an option to buy the rest after three years from now-minority owner Peter Karmanos. While it’s not clear how exactly the deal will impact the team on the ice, it should provide some extra stability to the executive level.