- Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press: Negotiations between the Jets and Michael Frolik’s agent Alan Walsh appear to be stalled. Frolik may be better served not to sign a deal for big money as it may put too much expectations on him. He does the little things better than the big things. He’s not a natural goal scorer and his max could be 25 goals. His value is that he can play up and down the lineup. A four-year, $16 million deal seems reasonable. Guess is that the Jets want four-years for less money and Walsh wants five and more money. GM Kevin Cheveladyoff won’t overpay as he’s been collecting prospects and less expensive options. Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd’s contracts expire after next season and will be UFAs. Jacob Trouba’s entry-level deal expires after next season. All three wouldn’t come cheap.
- Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette: Canadiens Jeff Petry is a pending UFA and will get plenty of interest.
“I’m not going to make a decision in the next few days,” said Petry, who noted that the question of free agency has been bouncing around since he signed a one-year deal with the Oilers last summer.
Petry could get long-term offers up to $6 million a year. Petry has said that money won’t be the only factor in his decision. There might be an opportunity for him to play for his hometown Red Wings.
Alex Galchenyuk will likely sign a bridge contract.
- Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post: The Flyers have had some level of interest in Russian defenseman Nikita Zaitsev. The Flyers and Blackhawks were interested in him back in 2010, where he went undrafted. Google translating a Russian website – saying that the Flyers were once again interested two years ago, but he chose to sign with CSKA of the KHL over coming over to North America. Same article saying that Zaitsev might be interested in coming over this offseason. His agent wouldn’t comment on if there has been any contact with the Flyers because he “can’t say anything before something happened.” The right-handed defenseman has one year left on his KHL deal. The Flyers have many defensemen under contract already and there is no guarantee that Zaitsev is NHL ready. He’s still only 23-year old.
- Jonas Siegel: There have been no contract talks between the Maple Leafs and Jonathan Bernier. Sounding like the Leafs could start talking to their free agents soon.
- James Mirtle: Rumors are that former London Knights (OHL) coach Lindsay Hofford could be hired by the Leafs in some role. OHL teams have had interest in bringing him on as a GM.
