Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there.
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: The Blue Jackets are looking to move their 8th overall pick, and have money to spend on free agents. They could have traded Steve Mason to Philadelphia and others, but have decided to keep him for now. GM Scott Howson will look for a backup, but not one that may not initially challenge for the #1 spot. The Jackets need to add a player that could be on the top defensive pairing.
“We’re talking to a lot of teams about defensemen,” Howson said. “Certainly we’re going to get to free agency and see what’s there, too, but there are a number of avenues we might take. We’ve made it clear that we want to change our back end, but you can only do so much. If you don’t have a willing trade partner, and if the free agents aren’t what you thought they’d be, there’s not much you can do.”
Christian Ehrhoff, Andrei Markov, Ed Jovanovski, Tomas Kaberle, Kevin Bieksa and James Wisniewski. Mike Commodore is expected to be bought out. The Blue Jackets could also use a top 6 center. Howson tried to get Jeff Carter but that didn’t work out. Signing Brad Richards would be nice, but a really though sell. Tim Connolly could be an option for the Jackets. If they bring in a top center, Antoine Vermette could move to the wing. Scottie Upshall wants to stay but he’ll likely move on. They’ll look to add a 3rd line player. Portzline thinks that if someone offers a 4th round pick, a middling prospect or a veteran for Nikita Filatov, they’d send him packing.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Adam Larsson will likely be a top 4 pick in this year’s draft, and could be the pick for the Colorado Avalanche. Larsson may not come over to North America for next season. From his agent, “Our belief is we’ll stay another year or two in Sweden.” Dater thinks that if he wants to stay in Sweden next year, the Avs may not want to draft him.
- Erik Erlendsson via twitter: If the Lightning aren’t able to re-sign Eric Brewer, they could bring in Kevin Bieksa, Christian Ehrhoff, Roman Hamrlik or Tomas Kaberle.
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Ottawa Senators would like to move up in the draft, they hold the 6th overall pick, and the Devils at #4 are said to be dangling the pick. The Sens are would rather trade one of their 3 2nd round pick instead of their 21st overall pick they acquired from Nashville. The Senators have tried to trade defenseman Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba with no luck so far. They look to sign a backup for Craig Anderson.
- Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Winnipeg interviewed their coach Craig Ramsay yesterday, who has 1 year left on his contract. “It was a good talk,” Ramsay told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I enjoyed the conversation. There was no commitment and no timeline . Nothing has been decided.” GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has also interviewed Mike Haviland (CHI assistant), Claude Noel (AHL Manitoba), and Craig MacTavish.
- Matt Kalman of the Boston Herald: After Game 7 Mark Recchi said he’d be retiring, and several days of celebrating hasn’t changed his mind, “No, that’s it.” He’ll take some time off now and hopes to find a management position at some point.
- Jim Jamieson of the Vancouver Province: Tanner Glass is one of Vancouver UFAs that hopes to be able to return. 3 other UFA forwards for the Canucks are Chris Higgins, Raffi Torres and Jeff Tambellini. Chris Higgins has also said he’d like to be back.