Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail: If the Flames were to fire Sutter, it still wouldn’t come close to solving the Calgary Flames issues. Questionable trades and some key players with several years left on their contracts will handcuff the team in some ways. Kotalik, Hagman, Stajan, and Higgins were brought in to help score some goals, they combined totalled 11 goals and 86 games.
Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun: Francis put chances of GM Darryl Sutter getting fired at 50%, chances of coach Brent Sutter getting fired at 25%, the chances of Iginla getting traded at 20%.
Ansar Khan of MLive: Contract talks involving any of the Detroit Red Wings free agents will have to wait until after the season, as they don’t hold talks during the playoffs. If Nicklas Lidstrom retires or not will be the big decision coming out of Detroit. If Jiri Hudler returns from Russia to join the Wings will also have an effect on what they will do. The Wings currently have 13 players signed for next year at $40.8 million. Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi are both most likely to be re-signed. RFA’s Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Patrick Eaves and Drew Miller will most likely all be resigned.
The Fourth Period: Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are unsure if they are going to return next season, or retire. The Ducks would welcome both back. The fates of Saku Koivu and Aaron Ward returning to the Ducks next season is uncertain.
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Dennis Seidenberg, picked up at the trade deadline, will be out for 8 weeks after he had surgery earlier this week repairing the “flexor carpi radialis tendon in his left forearm.” Seidenberg joins Mark Stuart, Andrew Ference and Marc Savard as injured Bruins.
Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen: Senators defenseman Filip Kuba underwent surgery on a herniated disc on Tuesday and will be out for a minimum of 4 weeks. So at the earliest he’ll be back in the second round, but most likely it would be longer. Kuba has already been out for the last month.
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: The 42-year old Mark Recchi hopes to be back with the Bruins next season. Recchi has played in every game so far this season, recording 17 goals and adding 25 assists. Recchi is third in goals and points for the offensively challenged Bruins.
