Claude Giroux is drawing real interest across the league this weekend, and the Ottawa Senators aren't the only ones calling.
Insider Bruce Garrioch reported the Toronto Maple Leafs are keenly interested in signing the veteran forward this offseason.
He added the Edmonton Oilers have already made a pitch, while the Senators and Philadelphia Flyers are also in the mix.
Bruce Garrioch mentioned that the Toronto Maple Leafs are keenly interested in F Claude Giroux.
He added that the Edmonton Oilers made a pitch, and that the Ottawa Senators & Philadelphia Flyers are both in the mix for him, as well.
So why would four different organizations want a 38-year-old this deep into the summer?
Giroux is 38, playing last season on a modest $2,000,000 cap hit for Ottawa.
He still put up 49 points over 82 games this season, hardly the profile of a player fading out.
He also finished at a plus-20 rating, one of the steadier possession marks anywhere on Ottawa's roster.
Over his last 10 games, he racked up 5 points and carried a plus-2 rating heading into the postseason.
Ottawa's season ended in four straight losses to the Carolina Hurricanes, and Giroux was held off the scoresheet across those games.
The Senators finished 44-27-11, good for 99 points and a playoff spot, which makes moving on from him anything but simple.
Senators and Flyers refuse to let Giroux go quietly
Philadelphia enters the conversation with 98 points and a three-game winning streak under head coach Rick Tocchet.
Edmonton finished with 93 points and a plus-13 goal differential, then turned around and made an actual offer.
Toronto's pitch is the strangest one of the four. The Maple Leafs finished 32-36-14, worst mark in this group.
They closed the year on seven straight losses. Adding a 38-year-old rental to a roster in freefall reads like rearranging furniture during a fire.
Senators GM Steve Staios now has a real decision on his hands, whether to match four suitors just to keep a proven veteran in the room.
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Nothing here is close to settled. Four teams are circling a player coming off one of his more productive seasons in years, and Ottawa still might not let him walk.
Should the Maple Leafs give term to a 38-year-old rental like Claude Giroux?
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