The calendar has turned to September, turning up the heat on both free agents looking for contracts and teams looking to fill roster holes ahead of training camp. A marginal salary cap increase over the past few seasons has made late-offseason moves more difficult to work out, though, and it’s becoming more and more common to see situations get resolved at the last minute due to a lack of other options.
Two players who continue to wait are a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins forwards in Zach Aston-Reese and Evan Rodrigues. Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski reported Sunday that sources tell him both Aston-Reese and Rodrigues have interest from NHL teams but are “holding out for better situations.”
Kingerski named both the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks as teams that have kicked tires on Rodrigues, which had been previously reported. He noted that Aston-Reese had interest from two or three NHL teams, but that the bottom-six utility player is looking for more offensive opportunities on his next team.
Whichever team does sign Aston-Reese will be getting one of the most valuable bottom-six threats (if not the most valuable) still on the market. His career-high of 17 points may not jump off the page, but he’s made a name for himself as one of the top defensive players, at least analytically speaking, in recent years. The 28-year-old product of Staten Island was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks at this year’s trade deadline in the Rickard Rakell trade and had four points in 17 games during his brief stint as a Duck.
An obvious fit for Aston-Reese would be the Winnipeg Jets, who still have some cap space to burn after signing Sam Gagner earlier this week. The Jets have some weak bottom-six depth that would allow Aston-Reese to see some more offensive looks, and his services could help solidify a historically defensively inept team.
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