- Adam Gretz of CBS Sports: Drew Doughty and the LA Kings still don’t have contract done, and nothing seems close. From Jim Alexander of the P-E: (Jack Ferreira is the Kings special assistant to he GM)
And this is part of what veteran hockey men bring to the table: There is little that can happen that they haven’t already seen. Today’s Kings are still at a negotiating stalemate with defenseman Drew Doughty , a restricted free agent. That situation got no easier Wednesday when an arbitrator awarded Nashville’s Shea Weber, a more experienced defenseman, $7.5 million for one year. “This year we were up in Toronto for the scouting combine and Dean had some meetings with Newport Sports (Doughty’s agents),” Ferreira said. “He came back and they were discussing what went on, and I just looked at him and said, ‘Dean, they don’t want to make a deal. They’re not ready to make a deal.’ “That’s gonna be a tough one. I would not be surprised if he was a holdout. I went through it with Paul Kariya, and Dean’s been through it.”
There is still about 2 months till the start of the season, a month away from training camp, so there is plenty of time to get a deal done.
- Sean Leahy of Yahoo! Sports: Marty Turco still remains unsigned, and his agent did say last week that he will play next season, but will it be in the NHL? Most NHL teams are not in need of backup. Columbus could be a possibility if they are worried about Steve Mason and the inexperience of Mark Dekanich. He could get a tryout from someone like Ray Emery did. Turco could end up in Europe or he could retire.
- Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Nothing has been finalized, but it’s looking like Pittsburgh will host the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Tampa Bay also applied for the draft. The draft hasn’t been in Pittsburgh since 1997.
- AP in the Globe and Mail: Steve Levy, an Executive of Suffolk County, called Islanders owner Charles Wang to talk about the idea of a new arena.
- Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province: 4th line Canucks hopeful, Byron Bitz, thinks he’s ready to go after going through 3 surgeries last year. He had sports hernia surgery last October, a surgery in January to repair a groin tear, and in March it was discovered that he had a labral tear.
“The hip was causing a lot of the groin problems I was having,” Bitz said. “They had to go in there and shave the bone down to get my hip joint moving again. It took a while to get to the bottom of it, but they finally got it right. I’m so glad they finally figured it out.
“Now, I’m good to go.”