Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray appeared on an episode of TSN 1200 on Monday and announced to the NHL world something that was already known by many: that he was interested in trading for a top-6 forward.
Or as he put it, a Bobby Ryan-type deal - a player he traded forward Jakob Silfverberg, Stefan Noesen and a first-round pick for in the summer of 2013.
"I'm going to continue to talk to people and search, but I know it's going to be difficult," said Murray. "You pay a couple of chips to get an established guy who doesn't fit into the cap of another team. I don't think there's a lot of them available, but we're going to keep looking."
One team that could prove a trade partner fit for the Sens and Murray is the St. Louis Blues.
Pierre LeBrun, appearing on TSN 1200 later in the day, pointed to the deep pool of forward depth the Blues boast, both at the NHL level and elsewhere.
"Remember, they added some pieces last summer and didn't lose anyone. And Vladimir Sobotka could come back from Russia and play for the Blues," LeBrun said, per NicholsOnHockey.com. "So they have a lot of pieces up front and I think at some point Doug Armstrong probably has to move a forward, and he's got a number of interesting candidates there...They're a bit overloaded, and so that's a team I would target."
The Bruins and Blues were said to be talking forward trade earlier this offseason and the Bruins actually did some in-depth scouting of the St. Louis roster, but nothing came to fruition.
But with an enviable stable of NHL scoring talent including Alexander Steen, T.J. Oshie and Paul Stastny, and with the unexpected development of Jori Lehtera and Vladimir Tarasenko, the Blues could and probably would be able to provide the piece Murray seeks.
They're not the only team LeBrun thinks could pique the Senators interest, though.
The Philadelphia Flyers, losers of three of their last four games, are inching ever closer to being fully out of postseason contention. They're severely limited defensively but boast a number of strong forwards and could look to trade one of their more expensive players for cap relief and picks.
Philly GM Ron Hextall has already made it known that he'd like to make a trade or three ahead of the deadline, but his efforts have most likely been hamstrung by the lack of affordable, pending unrestricted free agents on his blueline and his reticence to deal any of his talented young scorers.
