Elliotte Friedman was on Toronto’s Sportsnet 590 on Friday morning.

On potential offers to Don Maloney for the Coyotes’ No. 3 overall draft pick:

“I think he’s telling the truth. I think it’s very interesting. The interesting thing about that to me is that Don Maloney is an easy guy to deal with for me as a reporter, except when I come at him with trade rumors. He hates that. He doesn’t like to comment about it. He didn’t like how it went last year.

“I think it’s fascinating that he’s a guy right now who is coming out and saying this. It shows me how interested he is in trading that pick. And I do think he’s being honest because I also do think there are a lot of teams who have made pitches. Columbus is one. Philadelphia, I’m pretty sure, is one. I would not be surprised if Colorado was another. When you look at that particular offer, it screams, ‘Winnipeg,’ although I’m not 100 percent certain. But it fits with what the particular offer is.

“I do believe he’s telling the truth. I do think there are teams who want to be aggressive to move up. I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, if it’s not Columbus – if they have something going and there’s a player there that they want and they can’t make the deal to get up to No. 3, if they’ve spoke to Toronto about No. 4. I think Columbus is a team that could have several different irons in the fire.

“I 100 percent believe Maloney, and what he’s obviously trying to do is drive up the price. He’s got an idea of what he wants and he’s trying to tell people that, ‘I’m close but I’m not quite there on getting it.’ ”

Source: Sportsnet 590/ Transcript: Nichols