On the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning …
Nick Kypreos: Draft floor talk last night on the draft floor was the Stars and Lightning working on a deal for Ben Bishop. The Stars need the Lightning to take back a goalie in a deal.
On the Dallas Stars …
Pierre LeBrun: The Stars can sign Jamie Benn to an extension starting on July 1st. Both sides plan on talking this offseason to get a deal done.
On Nathan Gerbe …
Darren Dreger: Nathan Gerbe isn’t signing in Switzerland as he has interest from several NHL teams. He’s planning on staying in North America.
On the Los Angeles Kings …
John Hoven of Mayors Manor: With Milan Lucic contract talks behind them, the Kings can turn their attention to finding a winger for Anze Kopitar, a second pairing defenseman and to restock their goaltending depth.
Issues the Kings have to fill their needs is the lack of draft picks they have this year and the limited cap space they have. Even without signing Lucic they don’t have a lot of room.
Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik have been made available, but no teams have been interested as of yet.
They could consider trading Jake Muzzin or Alec Martinez to help free up some cap space, though it doesn’t appear that management wants to take away from their blueline.
With eight defensemen under contract next year, the Kings could put Rob Scuderi on waivers before the season starts. They could look to move Derek Forbort as they don’t want to lose him for nothing to waivers like what happened with Thomas Hickey in 2013.
Even though the Kings were interested in Andrew Ladd before the trade deadline, he’s not an option in free agency, maybe Loui Eriksson though.
Another winger that the Kings might be interested in is Kyle Okposo.