The Winnipeg Jets are entertaining the possibility of trading star forward Patrik Laine, TSN's Darren Dreger reported during Thursday's edition of "Insider Trading."

"Absolutely they're serious. ... The Winnipeg Jets know what their needs are," Dreger said. "They need a No. 2 center and they need to bolster the top four on their blue line. Kevin Cheveldayoff, the general manager there, can't solely rely on free agency."

"One way or another, Kevin Cheveldayoff is listening on Patrik Laine," Dreger added.

The Jets selected the winger with the No. 2 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Since his debut as a rookie during the 2016-17 season, he ranks seventh in the league in goals with 138.

The Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes are two teams that have expressed an interest in Laine, TSN's Pierre LeBrun reports.

Laine inked a two-year bridge deal last season that carries an average annual value of $6.5 million. He'll be a restricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign.

During the 2019-20 regular season, Laine recorded 28 goals and a career-high 35 assists in 68 games.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded veteran winger Patric Hornqvist to the Florida Panthers in exchange for blue-liner Mike Matheson and forward Colton Sceviour, the team announced Thursday.

Hornqvist, 33, has three years remaining on his current deal, which carries an annual cap hit of $5.3 million.

The gritty Swede was on pace to eclipse the 20-goal mark over 82 games for the eighth time of his career this season after recording 17 goals and 32 points through 52 contests. Hornqvist captured back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017, scoring the championship-clinching goal in the latter year.

Matheson, 26, is under contract through the 2025-26 campaign and carries an annual cap hit of $4.88 million. The 6-foot-2 rearguard recorded eight goals and 12 assists through 59 games this season.

The Penguins' acquisition of Matheson comes just weeks after general manager Jim Rutherford said the club would be moving on from defenseman Justin Schultz. The pending unrestricted free agent's latest deal was worth $5.5 million annually.

Sceviour, 31, contributed six goals and 16 points while ranking third on the Panthers with 91 hits in 69 games this season. He has one year remaining at $1.2 million on his current deal.

The trade marks Bill Zito's first splash as the Panthers' GM. Florida hired the 56-year-old on Sept. 2 after mutually parting ways with Dale Tallon in August.

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Despite a playoff run full of off-ice drama and an uncertain future with the club, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury hopes to remain with the Vegas Golden Knights for the rest of his NHL tenure.

"I want to stay in Vegas," Fleury told The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "I don’t know what the future holds, but I've loved every moment since I got here."

He added: "This team means a lot to me, and the city has been so good to me. The fans, and (owner Bill Foley) have been so awesome. It's a great team, and I thought when I came here that maybe I could retire here. I wanted to end my career here."

Fleury has been the Golden Knights' backbone since joining the expansion franchise from the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017. He signed a three-year, $21-million contract with Vegas the following summer, but his future in Sin City grew murky when the Golden Knights acquired Robin Lehner prior to this season's trade deadline.

Lehner eventually took over as the club's postseason starter, and the dynamic between the two netminders came into question after Fleury's agent, Allan Walsh, tweeted a picture of a sword inscribed with head coach Peter DeBoer's name stabbing his client through the back.

Vegas reportedly plans to sign Lehner, a pending unrestricted free agent, to a new deal this offseason - potentially making Fleury expendable in a trade. Fleury hopes that isn't the case.

"I get along great with Robin, so I think it would be all right," he said of another time-share in goal next season. "I still love to play. I don't think I just want to be a backup, but I'll practice hard, try to play well, and hopefully get some games, but it always comes down to the coach's decision.

"Whatever happens, happens. And that's fine. I'll just try my best to come to camp in good shape and do well from there."

Fleury, who turns 36 on Nov. 28, has posted a 91-50-14 record along with a .915 save percentage and 2.51 goals-against average in three seasons with the Golden Knights.

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The postseason is for cliches. Regardless of the level of competition, those well-worn hockey catchphrases take on practical meaning when everything is on the line.

Play a full 60 minutes? You better, or your season will be over. Get pucks in deep? You must if you plan to wear down the opposition over the course of a series. Traffic in front? It's a time-tested way to score playoff goals.

In the 2020 Stanley Cup Final, one of the greatest cliches of all time is firmly rooted.

"If you're going to win," Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said Wednesday after his team took a 2-1 series lead over the Dallas Stars. "Your best players have to be your best players."

Cooper, who's known for his thoughtful, non-cliche quotes, is spot-on. Through three games, the body of work from each team's stars has tilted the scales in Tampa's favor. There's a giant gap between the accomplishments of Cooper's top guns and those of Dallas' best players.

The Lightning are a deadly outfit because they boast an abundance of star power coupled with enviable role-player depth. When both groups are humming, as they have been over the past week, Tampa is a treat to watch. A clinical juggernaut.

Nikita Kucherov, the club's most dangerous offensive threat, leads the playoffs with 30 points in 22 games. He's played with a certain moxie against Dallas, battling through various painful moments - especially in Game 2 - to produce four points in three games, including a goal and an assist in Wednesday's 5-2 Game 3 victory. In a word, he's been dominant.

Victor Hedman, Tampa's all-world defenseman, has laid waste to the Stars. With Hedman on the ice, the Lightning have controlled 56% of the shot attempts and 53% of the expected goals (2-2 in actual goals) in 46 minutes of five-on-five action against Dallas' top players. The big Swede also has a series-leading five points.

Center Brayden Point and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, meanwhile, continue to make playoff MVP cases of their own. Point, who's battled injury throughout Tampa's two-plus months in the bubble, has 28 points in 20 games. Vasilevskiy has started all 22 of the Lightning's games and ranks second in goals saved above average (7.24) among goalies who've played at least 500 minutes this postseason.

Even captain Steven Stamkos - who until Wednesday had been sidelined since Feb. 25 - has authored a defining moment. Despite being limited to 2:47 of ice time, Stamkos impacted Game 3 greatly. His lone shot on goal, a bullet of a wrister off the rush, zoomed past Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin's right shoulder to put Tampa up 2-0.

"He only had five shifts, but they were as efficient five shifts as you're ever going to see in a National Hockey League game," Cooper said of Stamkos. "We're with these players day in, day out, all year. This is the season that never seems to end. To do what he did on the biggest stage at the biggest time of the year, you had to marvel at it. It was pretty damn cool."

Contrast Stamkos' fairytale cameo with what's happening on the Stars' side of things. Their No. 91, Tyler Seguin, hasn't scored a goal in a month - his last tally came on Aug. 26 in Game 3 of Dallas' second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche - and he's registered one lonely assist since. Seguin is playing fine overall, and he certainly can't complain about ice time; he's logged more than 21 minutes in two of three games in the final. But the $9.85-million man needs to start producing.

"Do we need more from him? Yes," Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness said Tuesday. "Do we need more from a lot of other players? Yes. I know (Seguin) gets all the attention - and, OK, that comes with the territory, so he's got to deal with that. But, as a coach, I'm after a few more guys to give us more."

Seguin's longtime linemates, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov, haven't exactly taken the postseason by storm either. Benn's been buzzing of late, but he's yet to record a point in this series. Radulov has a trio of assists against the Lightning and 17 total playoff points, but he took two boneheaded penalties in Game 3, one of which resulted in Tampa's eventual game-winning goal. Dallas' top line isn't getting top-line results.

"They've got to figure it out," Bowness said. "It's as simple as that."

Defensemen Miro Heiskanen and John Klingberg round out Dallas' list of stars. Both have been solid against the Lightning and far from the problem, though Heiskanen did get burned Wednesday on Tampa's opening goal. "Tonight we made some errors," Klingberg said. "That's hockey. That's sports. It's 2-1, they're up one. We're going to even the series on Friday."

Therein lies another trusty cliche: Take it one game at a time. Really, it's the only mentality to hone right now if you're a member of the Stars. Seguin can't focus on the fact he's scored twice on 61 shots on goal in these playoffs. Radulov must put those penalties behind him. Heiskanen can't dwell on one mistake in an otherwise brilliant, Conn Smythe-worthy postseason. The list goes on.

Ironically, the first three games of this series have shown that Dallas, despite being outmatched on paper, can hang with Tampa. The final has been nastier than predicted, creating an environment and atmosphere that can most definitely play into the Stars' hands.

When Dallas limits the Lightning's grade A chances in the offensive zone, as it did in its 4-1 win in Game 1, Khudobin can take care of the rest. When the Stars stay out of the penalty box and find a rhythm for an entire game, they size up pretty well stylistically. When they produce some semblance of offense - rather than going long stretches without recording a shot on goal, as they did in Games 2 and 3 - they absolutely can scratch and claw their way to a victory, or two, or three. It's not an impossible task.

In Game 4, Bowness and the Stars will again have the luxury of last change as the "home" team. Also of note: Dallas hasn't logged as many miles as the Lightning have in the month of September. Heading into Friday, the first day of a back-to-back scenario, the Stars will have played eight hard-fought games in 19 days, while Tampa will have played nine contests in 18 days. These small differences can add up.

It's fair to wonder, too, what kind of impact the currently unfit-to-play Ben Bishop might have on the series - good or bad - if Bowness taps him as the Stars' starting goalie for an upcoming game. Mind you, none of it will matter if, to expand on Cooper's thoughts, one team's best players embarrass the other team's best players at the most important time of year.

Both Kucherov and Hedman noted this week that Tampa's players couldn't care less about padding personal statistics or challenging long-held records. They're worried about winning the Cup and absolutely nothing else.

It was grossly cliche. And, to be honest, perfectly said.

John Matisz is theScore's national hockey writer.

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Newly minted Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong admitted keeping pending unrestricted free agent Taylor Hall in the desert won't be a straightforward process.

"It'd have to be very creative to keep him (in Arizona)," Armstrong said, per NHL.com's Brian Compton. "That's something we're going to explore. We're never going to turn our eye to talent like that. He's a heck of a player, but we've got to explore. These are (things that are) going to happen between now and free agency. We're going to explore everything."

The Coyotes have made numerous pitches to Hall, but the 28-year-old winger is the top free-agent forward on the market this offseason and has stated several times his top priority at this stage of his career is winning.

Arizona made the playoffs for the first time since 2012 this summer by virtue of the expanded field. Since being drafted first overall in 2010, Hall has only played in 14 postseason contests.

Hall is coming off a seven-year, $42-million contract signed with the Edmonton Oilers in 2012. He should receive a considerable raise from his $6 million average annual value on his next deal, which hurts Arizona's odds of keeping the star player; the club has a projected $1.1 million in available cap space for next season, according to Cap Friendly.

Hall has notched 563 points in 627 career games and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 2018.

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