Frank Seravalli says some team will try to jump the line for Bruce Cassidy, with the Blackhawks named as one possibility.
The names came with no certainty attached. Seravalli mentioned Chicago and Winnipeg, then left the door open to any team around the league, and he doesn't know which one it will be. It's the latest market chatter from a reporter who has been busy, after Seravalli's report on Rasmus Ristolainen and the Flyers last week.
Seravalli stated that a team is going to try to get to the front of the line for Cassidy if it can get permission to do so.
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Permission is the key word. Until a team gets it, this stays a rumor, and nothing in the report says when or whether that happens.
Chicago is an easy name to put on the list. The Blackhawks lost 5-3 at Florida tonight, and before that game they were 4-10-1, 31st in the NHL out of 32, with a 0-5-1 record on the road. Jeff Blashill is the head coach.
Cassidy also has history in that building. He played 36 NHL games for Chicago and finished with 17 points.
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When a name like this surfaces, every front office with a struggling team has to decide whether to ask. A -25 goal differential, which is where Chicago stood before tonight's game, makes that conversation hard to avoid, whether or not it ends in a call.
Seravalli has a habit of putting a market in motion before the details are public. His note that Rickard Rakell is up for grabs in Pittsburgh followed the same pattern.
The only part Seravalli stated as likely is that someone asks. If that someone is Chicago, the Blackhawks are on the road Thursday at Tampa Bay, where they have yet to win this season.
Should a struggling team be allowed to chase Bruce Cassidy before the permission question is settled?
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