- David Pagnotta: The Blues have signed Jay Bouwmeester to a five-year contract extension worth $27 million, a $5.4 million cap hit. Lou Korac: GM Doug Armstrong said they wanted to work something out this summer as they didn’t want to talk during the season. Andy Strickland: Bouwmeester has a no-trade clause.
- David Pagnotta: Talks between the Blues and Alex Pietrangelo are ongoing, nothing is imminent.
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: After the free agent frenzy, things have slowed down.
“This has gone exactly how we expected it would go,” said a league executive Wednesday. “Everybody blew the brains out on free agency in the first couple of days. Now, it’s hard for anybody to get a contract done.
“The money has been spent. Now, there are some guys who are looking for work, and some of those guys are starting to panic (with training camps set for next month.”
On why some players haven’t signed yet.
“You’ve got a situation, in some cases, where teams simply have to move money if they’re going to sign unrestricted free agents. There are a few teams that are going to have to shed some cash,” said one high-profile agent.
“This always happens after free agency opens. Teams take a break from signing guys. A few guys are left waiting and they get signed once GM’s pick up their phones sometime in August and start making deals again.”
League executive doesn’t think that Ilya Bryzgalov and Tim Thomas will sign a deal before training camp. The Senators and Colin Greening have held talks but are not close to a deal.
Jay Bouwmeester