- Tim Panaccio via twitter: A lot of teams will be going after UFA defenseman Justin Schultz, including the Flyers.
- James Mirtle via twitter: The deadline to buy players out is Saturday. There hasn’t been much talk about teams buying players out.
- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: The Blues will be looking to add a top 4 defenseman and maybe a couple bottom 6 forwards if they don’t re-sign Jamie Langenbrunner and Scott Nichol. The Blues reportedly have interest in Panthers defenseman Jason Garrison, who may be looking for a 5 year, $25 million deal. A trade option could be Jay Bouwmeester. The Blue currently sit about $28 million under the projected cap with 18 players under contract. They are still working on re-signing RFAs T.J. Oshie and David Perron.
“To me, I’d like to talk to T.J. Oshie about something that might have a little bit of term to it,” Armstrong said recently. “Now when I say ‘term,’ we’re not a team that’s looking for 5-, 6-, 10-, 15-year deals … that’s not in my DNA at this particular time. But I think I owe it to T.J. Oshie, who listened to the organization last year about our desire for him to do certain things. I have no issues with T.J. Oshie now. Whatever learning hurdles he had to go through to get into the NHL, he’s past those now. And I think David’s injury, as an organization, we want to make sure he’s past that.”
- Damien Cox of the Toronto Sun: Cox suggests the Maple Leafs could lay down a large, multi-year, multi-million offer sheet for Cory Schneider. Vancouver would match the offer, but it may force the Canucks hand. If the offer sheet for Schneider was 8 years at $40 million, the Canucks would have $10 million in 2 goaltenders for next season. The Canucks could then just move Luongo to another team just to spite the Leafs. The Canucks might get Tyler Bozak or a prospect like Jesse Blacker or Korbinian Holzer and a 2nd round pick for Luongo. Burke might have to think about a Nazem Kadri or Stuart Percy and a 2nd round pick.
- Jason Botchford via twitter: The Canucks wouldn’t panic if Schneider signed an offer sheet. They would match it and then have more time to decide what to do.
- Toronto Sun: Nikolai Kulemin wants to remain with the Maple Leafs, but contract negotiations could get a little sticky. Kulemin, Matt Frattin, Cody Franson and Ben Scrivens received qualifying offers. The Leafs will take a run at Justin Schultz.
- Sam Carchidi via twitter: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren says the chances of re-signing Jaromir Jagr are 50-50.
- Robert Tychowski of the Edmonton Sun: The Oilers are looking to add a big, steady defenseman, a puck moving defenseman and some front-line muscle.
“We’ve been talking to teams,” said Tambellini. “There are many teams with the same goals, looking for the type of forwards we’re looking for and the defencemen we’re looking for.”
- Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press: After the draft Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff climbed through the stands to find Ondrej Pavelec’s agent, Allan Walsh. They talked for a long time and were the last 2 people in the stands. Signing Pavelec is a top priority, but there is a gap. The Jets aren’t going to trade him.