James Reimer’s asking price came in at $6 million

Damien Cox and Elliotte Friedman recap a busy Saturday as teams have begun making trades ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline.

Before the Toronto Maple Leafs traded goaltender James Reimer to the San Jose Sharks, there was in fact an attempt to sign the pending unrestricted free agent to a deal.

As reported by Sportsnet’s Damien Cox on this week’s Headlines, the asking price from the Reimer camp was too high for the Leafs, leading to their decision to move on.

“There were brief contract negotiations between the Leafs and the goaltender during the season,” said Cox. “But when the asking price came in at $6 million per season, the Leafs said, ‘No thanks.’ and decided to trade him.”

The Leafs received goaltender Alex Stalock, forward Ben Smith and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018 for forward Jeremy Morin and Reimer.

“Some people (are) disappointed the Leafs only got a fourth-round pick, there really was only one team interested in Reimer,” said Cox.

The 27-year-old is earning $2 million this season, the final one of a two-year, $4.6-million contract signed as a restricted free agent in July of 2014.

This summer will be his first chance to test the open market.

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