Unrestricted free agent defenseman Kris Russell is still without an NHL home, but that status may be changing fairly soon.
TSN Insider Bob McKenzie returned to work after Labor Day and hit the airwaves this week, and his Wednesday morning radio hit on Toronto’s TSN 1050 revealed a little more information on the Russell front.
“The long and short of it for Kris Russell is that I think he’ll sign here in the next number of days,” said McKenzie. “Maybe next week, but maybe before the end of this week. Multiple teams talking to him still. I don’t believe the Leafs are one of them. I think he’s more likely to take a one-year deal – or to get a one-year deal – than anything else, and go back to the free agent trough next summer and try to experience better luck than he did this year.
“I think he suffered from a number of things. There was a general sense out there that his expectations were for like a five-year deal at more than $5 million a year, and I think that scared a lot of teams off and they didn’t go down that road. By the time they sorted out what they were doing, Russell was kind of left on the sidelines.
“He’s not a fancy stats darling by any stretch of the imagination. And going to Dallas, like he did down the stretch, and Dallas not doing particularly well, didn’t help him. Although it certainly didn’t hurt Jason Demers, who went to Florida. Or Goligoski, who went from Dallas to Arizona.”
Source: TSN 1050/ Transcript: Nichols
