- JP Hoornstra of the InsideSocal: Paul Kariya could play a part in Teemu Selanne’s plan to play another season or not. Selanne has said he wants to know if Kariya would come back to Anaheim if he decides to play next year. “Obviously all the years that I had with Paul, it was just unbelievable,” Selanne said. “I talked to him yesterday and we’re going to meet next week. We didn’t even talk about injuries yet but I want to talk to him about how he’s doing, what he’s thinking and maybe go surf with him.”
If he retires, Selanne said he would be at peace his career ending now. “I think so,” he said. “I tried to play like I left everything there. That’s how you should play anyway, every season. You can’t just win the Stanley Cup every year. That would be awesome, but it doesn’t work like that. I really believe we had enough tools to go further, but we lost.”
If he comes back, it will be in Anaheim. “I haven’t thought about having a chance to go somewhere else,” he said. “This is my place for sure.”
- Tim Sassone of the Daily Herald: Despite being knocked out by the Canucks in the first round, there isn’t a lot of holes to fill in the Blackhawks lineup. One area they need to add is size and sandpaper. They have to make decisions on RFAs Troy Brouwer, Viktor Stalberg, Chris Campoli and Jake Dowell, either to re-sign or use as trade bait. Re-signing RFA’s Cory Crawford and Michal Frolik is a priority. Ryan Johnson may be only UFA to return (if the price is right) out of a group of Tomas Kopecky, Marty Turco, Fernando Pisani and Jordan Hendry. Kopecky may have priced himself out of Chicago’s plans, he made $1.2 million this past season. The Blackhawks could look at dealing one of their “big-ticket players”, possibly Niklas Hjalmarsson and his $3.5 million cap hit.
- Helene Elliott of the LA Times: The Kings think that Dustin Penner needs to improve his conditioning for next season. Winger Justin Williams needs to decide if he wants to have surgery on his shoulder or not. GM Lombardi has to decide if he wants Michal Handzus and Alexei Ponikarovsky back, coach Murray does. They must also re-sign RFA’s Drew Doughty, Wayne Simmonds, Trevor Lewis, Brad Richardson, Alec Martinez and Oscar Moller. Moller’s future with the Kings may not be bright as he scratched for Scott Parse who had been out for 5 months. Lombardi on Doughty, “Part of this is do we go short term with Doughty for now and keep it down or try and go long-term.”
- Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette: The Canadiens blueline could have a different look next year as they have 6 UFA’s. Who of Andrei Markov, Roman Hamrlik, James Wisniewski, Brent Sopel and Hal Gill will be back?