Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Pittsburgh Penguins gave up their number 2 prospect, Luca Caputi, at the trade deadline for Alexei Ponikarovsky, a deal that hasn’t played out as well as the Penguins had hoped. Ponikarovsky was brought in to be a top 6 forward and play with Evgeni Malkin, but he found himself dropped down to the 4th line, and then in the press box on Saturday. Though it’s unclear if they will look to bring him back next season, he might have to take less than he might get on the open market if he wants another shot playing with Malkin.
Darren Dreger of TSN: Maple Leafs number 2 man, Dave Nonis, was rumored to be one of the top candidates for the vacant Tampa Bay GM job, but it appears that that won’t be happening. Nonis is expected to be signing an extension with the Leafs that will keep him with the club through 2011-12.
Craig Custance of the Sporting News: Nicklas Lidstrom has enrolled his son in a Swedish school, though it doesn’t mean he’ll be retiring. “That’s something his age you have to do if we are going back to Sweden, otherwise he wouldn’t have a school,” Lidstrom said. “It’s something we had to do just to make sure, if we did go… he had a school to go to, otherwise we’d go back there and he wouldn’t be where he wanted to be.”
Bryan Mullen of the Tennessean: The Nashville Predators will most likely stay the course with their drafting philosophy, taking the best player regardless of position. The Preds don’t have their 2nd (Grebeshkov trade) and 4th (Boyd trade) round picks. I think they should be taking the best scoring forward, regardless if he’s a center or winger, the Preds need to score more goals.
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: Joe Pavelski is one of the top RFAs this summer, and could be in a similar situation as Phil Kessel was last year, and their numbers are similar. Pavelski could get an offer sheet from someone, but the Sharks have only $36 million tied up next so far, and would most likely match the offer (unless it’s crazy). Columbus GM, and former Oilers assistant GM Scott Howson is a big fan of Ales Hemsky, but don’t count on them sending the Number 4 draft pick to the Oilers for him. There’s a good chance Sergei Kostitsyn will be in the KHL next season. Tomas Vokoun’s $6.3 million salary may be to big for some teams to swallow, but the Panthers will try to again at the draft and/or in July. Florida could go with Scott Clemmensen and Jacob Markstrom if Vokoun is moved.
