- Craig Custance of ESPN: The Lightning and Steven Stamkos haven’t started contract extension talks. The Kings and Anze Kopitar have exchanged initial numbers, but that is about as far along as they’ve progressed. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane’s contracts that kick in this season will serve as comparables.
“It’s easy to say, ‘I’m going to sign Stamkos for $11 million,’ but now I have to move $8 million,” said the agent. “Giordano, Kopitar, Stamkos — all those guys are going to get a huge number. As a result, everybody has to move five million. If there’s six teams that have to move five million, how much space is left over? How many other teams have that cap space? There’s a point where the system gets constipated. I don’t know if we’re there.”
The agent noted that if Toews and Kane took $9 million per season over $10.5 million, that could have gave the Blackhawks an extra $3 million, or the ability to keep Johnny Oduya.
“Those two contracts are killing Chicago,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to manage your cap. You can’t allocate too many resources to any one player. You see it with Chicago — those contracts are kicking in and they’re not the same team anymore. And they have the benefit of the Hossa and Keith deals that you can’t structure anymore. They have two guys that are 20 to 40 percent discounted.”
The Kings have the contract uncertainty of Mike Richards and Slava Voynov, Milan Lucic’s pending free agency and the overpaying of Dustin Brown (almost $6 million). Kings GM Dean Lombardi may be hoping to keep Kopitar’s cap hit closer to Ryan Getzlaf’s $8.25 million over Toews $10.5 million cap hit.
The Lightning will also have to deal with some contract extensions for other players.
“Look at Steve salary cap. What’s he going to do? Where does the money go?,” said one agent. “Steve Yzerman has to be sitting with the brain trust going, ‘Okay, if it’s going to be 10.5 million, what do we do?’ The other side of the question — if Steven Stamkos goes to the market, he’s getting 11 or 12, but where is he getting it from? He’s currently on a Cup contender,” whereas the team offering big money in free agency most likely isn’t.
- Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: The Bruins could still add to their roster, and Haggerty thinks they should do so.Forwards that are still unsigned: Martin Havlat, Erik Cole, Brenden Morrow, Olli Jokinen, Jiri Tlusty, Curtis Glencross and Stephen Weiss
Defensemen that are still unsigned: Christian Ehrhoff, Marek Zidlicky and Cody Franson.
Franson and Ehrhoff could have signed new deals already, but are likely holding out for more money and/or a longer term.
Haggerty responding to twitter followers on trade rumors last week involving Kevin Shattenkirk and the Bruins. He would fit a Bruins need, he did play at BU, and the Bruins did try to trade for him when he was with the Avalanche. But, the Blues were able to get under the cap, so there is no need for them to trade Shattenkirk in the next month. The Blues denied those trade rumors.
- Steve Simmons: Mike Santorelli signed a one-year deal with the Ducks ($875,000). Was told that the Leafs had offered Santorelli a three year contract last December. Another source said on Monday that it was a two-year offer.
- Sports Forecaster: Curtis Glencross may be accepting a training camp invite from the Avalanche.
- Ansar Khan of MLive: Red Wings Joakim Andersson could start the season on their fourth line, either at center or on the wing. He’ll likely be battling Landon Ferraro for a roster spot. Andersson’s future with the Red Wings could be in doubt in the upcoming years due to the young forwards in their system including Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi.
