Report: Trade talks pick up for Stars blue liner Julius Honka

In case you missed the news last week, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported that defenseman Julius Honka has requested a trade from the Dallas Stars.

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Now, more than a week later, it appears like trade talks for Honka are beginning to pick up. In his latest 31 Thoughts column for Sportsnet Friedman reports that the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens are “looking closely” at Honka and that the Calgary Flames have at least expressed some interest.

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As reported previously, both Carolina and Montreal are among teams looking closely at Dallas’s Julius Honka. I’d heard Calgary was, too, but that does not appear recent. Expect the Flames to be very careful with Juuso Valimaki . They will not rush him back. Long career ahead of him.

Interesting. The problem with the Hurricanes is that they’re absolutely loaded on the back end, but that doesn’t seem to matter as they’re seemingly in on any available Finn in the NHL.

As for the Canadiens, there’s been plenty of ink spilled this offseason about their need and desire to acquire an offensive, puck moving defenseman especially after missing out on Jake Gardiner to the Hurricanes.

The Flames seem like a good fit, especially given Juuso Valimaki’s injury as Friedman reports. The problem there is that the Flames are in a tough cap crunch and need to wiggle RFA Matthew Tkachuk in somehow. Honka is also an unsigned RFA, but shouldn’t command much in salary given just how unproductive his career has been to this point.