Grier Talks Eklund Trade, Byram Interest, Sharks’ Free Agents, Offers for No. 2 Pick (+)

Mike Grier has been a busy man.

Not just because of Tuesday’s William Eklund trade.

Grier has also had media availabilities on back-to-back days, one before the Eklund trade, and another after.

Here are extended highlights from both pre-Draft pressers.

Post-Eklund trade, the San Jose Sharks GM discusses how the deal came together, his interest in Bo Byram, and a “real interesting” offer that her got for the No. 2 pick.

Pre-Eklund trade, Grier talked about the Michael Kesselring and Andre Gasseau deals, what the Sharks will do with free agents like Vincent Desharnais and Shakir Mukhamadullin and Ryan Reaves and Pavol Regenda, how much interest that he’s received  for the second-overall, Ryan Warsofsky’s contract, and the age range that he’s looking for if he’s adding a star from the outside.

Post-Eklund Trade

Mike Grier, on how William Eklund trade came together:

It came together fairly quickly. Eky wasn’t someone I was looking to move…Stevie got put in a tough [Brady Tkachuk] situation there in Ottawa, and I thought he did a great job of navigating it, difficult situation. I think once that happened, he was looking for a good player to fill a top-six role for his team. We had some discussions, and it came together fairly quickly.

[Eklund] was someone that Ottawa kind of zeroed in on and targeted as a player who could come in and help replace some of the production that they lost with Brady.