Is Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand headed West?

The Carolina Hurricanes and Mikko Rantanen holding up the forward market

TSN: Pierre LeBrun said they’ve learned over the past 24 hours that the Carolina Hurricanes have went to teams that they know were interested in Mikko Rantanen and told them to get serious with their offers.

“And at the end of the day, what I expect Carolina to do is look at all of those offers and decide if that’s better than just renting out Rantanen for a Cup run with the Hurricanes, and whether they lose him July 1 for nothing, so be it.”

Internally, the Hurricanes havn’t made any decisions on which way they are leading.

Among the teams believed to be interested include the Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights, and the Los Angeles Kings.

Darren Dreger adds that after talking to some teams who are sellers, the Mikko Rantanen-Carolina Hurricanes situation is holding up the forward market. It’s possible that some just says, the heck with waiting for Rantanen and moves on Scott Laughton or someone else.

Will Brad Marchand be heading West?

TSN: Chris Johnston says that injured Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand wants to remain in Boston, and that they have wanted to keep him, but it doesn’t feel like they are working to complete a deal.

“But what I can tell you is that at this point in time, there’s no confirmation he’s going to be traded, but the feeling league-wide is that he very much is likely to be moved by the Bruins, at some point, to the West.

And so we’ll see where this goes because there has been some conversations on a new contract as recently as the last couple days. There’s always a pivot point when you get this close, James, you don’t want to box yourself totally in.”

The Toronto Maple Leafs have talked to the Philadelphia Flyers about Rasmus Ristolainen

TSN: Darren Dreger says the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking for centers and defensemen, and GM Brad Treliving may have checked in on some wingers as well.

The Leafs have talked to the Philadelphia Flyers about defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.

Center options remain Brayden Schenn, Brock Nelson and Scott Laughton.