On the Dallas Stars …
Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: (mailbag) The Stars plan so far is to enter next season with Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi.
There is the Ben Bishop talk, but reader asks if they should be looking at Marc-Andre Fleury again.
“I am just guessing at this, but I believe the fear is Fleury’s playoff woes are just as significant as Lehtonen’s.”
Talk has been quiet with regards to a Jamie Benn contract extension. They have been known to keep things quiet in the past, and they may have been wanting to get through free agency before getting to Benn. Guess is that it gets done sometime in June.
On the Colorado Avalanche …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 1260 on the Colorado Avalanche and the Tyson Barrie situation.
“I guess the question that I would ask beyond all of that though is what’s going on in Colorado with its top-end guys? Ryan O’Reilly, there was this back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The offer sheet. They matched. It ends up creating a negative environment, and ultimately, they trade this guy to Buffalo at the draft a year ago. I can assure you of this – if Joe Sakic had the opportunity to take the mulligan or a do-over, he’d do that differently.
“It’s curious to me why they’d be going down a similar path, although no offer sheet yet on Tyson Barrie. But these are quality players. These are world-class players. And Colorado just seems to be in an annual fight with these guys. And I get it, there’s only so many dollars you can spend. But when you’ve got two-thirds of the league that is trying to acquire your player, maybe you sit down and go, ‘Okay, well, maybe this is a guy we need to hold onto.”
