Snapshots: Tanev, Barzal, Sillinger

In a longer review of the rumors circulating around the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames defenseman, Chris Tanev, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes that if the Maple Leafs acquire Tanev, they may look to sign him rather quickly to an extension (Link). Being a native of Toronto, Tanev may take a discount to finish his career with his hometown team. Still, at his age, and with more important internal free agents on the horizon, it may be difficult for the Maple Leafs to make it work.

In the article, Friedman said, “He’s a Toronto guy, Treliving signed him, I bet he’ll have a good idea of what it will take to keep him. That’s the one guy I think Toronto goes hard to get, because even if he’s acquired as a rental, I think they’re going to be pretty confident they can keep him. But we’ll see.”

Although Tanev could significantly improve the Maple Leafs’ defense, with William Nylander, Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, and T.J. Brodie, among others, set to hit unrestricted free agency next summer, signing Tanev to an extension could become close to impossible. It is not a foregone conclusion that Toronto will sign all these players to extensions, or even that they are interested in resigning all of them, but the Maple Leafs should be trying to keep their cap situation as open as possible for next summer.

Other snapshots:

• The New York Islanders announced that forward Mathew Barzal will miss tonight’s game with an illness. Continuing with an organizational theme for the last several years, the Islanders once again have one of the lowest-scoring rosters in the league, with only five players scoring more than five goals through 20 or more games. Barzal, who is leading the team in points, has seven goals and 16 assists, once again showing off his elite playmaking abilities.
• One of the missing players from the Columbus Blue Jackets practice this morning was forward Cole Sillinger, who is out with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day (X Link). Although Columbus has picked things up a tad since a rough start to the season, Sillinger is now in his second season of dramatically struggling with production. In 88 games played over the last two seasons, Sillinger has only scored four goals and 16 assists, after scoring 16 goals and 15 assists in 79 games in his rookie season.