- Helene Elliott of the LA Times: The president of the Kings’ parent company AEG, Tim Leiweke, supports Kings GM Dean Lombardi’s stance with Drew Doughty. Leiweke said the Kings plan to spend to the cap but paying Doughty $7+ million would change the allocation of their budget and would have long-term implications.
“The difference of opinion here is that Drew may see this as disrespect, and it’s not at all. We have offered to make him the fourth-highest-paid defenseman in the NHL and equal the highest-paid King in our history. When I look at that, I think there either has to be a miscommunication or Drew’s a 21-year-old and probably hasn’t done what he may need to do here, which is stand up and take charge of the decision.”
“More importantly, tell me which player we’re now starting to carve this $300,000 or $400,000 out of. We’re carving it out of someone’s salary next year and it’s no secret we’ve got some restricted and unrestricted free agents that we have to deal with in the next two years. So who is it on this team we go look at and say, ‘We just gave Drew your extra money, because $6.8 wasn’t good enough’? That’s not good for team chemistry.
“I support Dean on what he’s trying to do here. He’s not trying to be cheap. He’s not trying to be disrespectful. We love Drew. It’s an allocation issue here and everyone, including most of the players I’ve run into in the last week, they get that we are desperate to try to keep enough resources to keep this team together long term.”
Leiweke added,
“Let’s not destroy this relationship or his reputation or our reputation over something like this. We need to get this done. He needs to get back in here.
- CP in the Globe and Mail: NY Rangers forward Sean Avery told ESPN that Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds made a homophobic slur at him during Monday night’s game. Simmonds didn’t deny making the remark:
“We were going back-and-forth for the rest of the game and emotions ran high,” he said. “I don’t recall every single thing that I did say to him. He said some things to me that I didn’t like, and I guess I said some things that he didn’t like.”
- Dmitry Chesnokov via twitter: Alexei Yashin will be signing with the CSKA of the KHL later today.
- Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: Sabres forward Ales Kotalik and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn cleared waivers yesterday and were assigned to Rochester of the AHL. It will save the team a $5.075 million cap space this season. The Sabres were unsuccessful in their attempt to trade the two. They are currently about $930,000 below the cap. 14 other players were sent to Rochester: forwards Zack Kassian, Marcus Foligno, Corey Tropp Jonathan Parker, Michael Ryan, Colin Stuart, Phil Varone and Derek Whitmore; defensemen T.J. Brennan, Brayden McNabb Dennis Persson, Joe Finley and Drew Schiestel. and goaltender Drew MacIntyre.
- Chris Botta of the NY Times: If Sean Avery doesn’t impress Rangers management, he could find himself on waivers and sent to the AHL.
- Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun: The Maple Leafs still have 9 defenseman in camp, battling for the 6 starting positions. In camp remain: Dion Phaneuf, Keith Aulie (on a two-way), Luke Schenn, John-Michael Liles, Cody Franson, Mike Komisarek, Carl Gunnarsson (could be on the bubble), Jake Gardiner (can also be sent to minors without going on waivers), and Matt Lashoff (long shot).
- Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune: Yesterday at practice the the Blackhawks tried Patrick Kane at center between Marian Hossa and Andrew Brunette. “I don’t know, (we’ll) try it for a couple of games and see how it goes. It’s preseason, so why not? I’m willing to try it out, I guess. I’m going to try to do my best there and see what happens.” Kane said.
- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Red Wings GM Ken Holland said that forward Jan Mursak has a broken left ankle and will be out around 3 months. There are several non-displaced fractures and some stretched ligaments. Fabian Brunnstrom or Ryan Johnson could benefit from the injury.
- Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal: Oilers forward Sam Gagner had an MRI done to determine if he has a high ankle sprain. Results not know yet.
- Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen: The Senators will trim their camp roster to 25-27 players. Likely to be sent to the AHL are “goalies Mike McKenna, Brian Stewart, and Robin Lehner; defencemen Tim Conboy, Bob Raymond, Josh Godfrey, Craig Schira, Patrick Wiercioch, Mark Borowiecki, and Eric Gryba; and forwards Mike Hoffman, David Dziurzynski, Derek Grant, Corey Cowick, Corey Locke, Mark Parrish, Darren Kramer, Jim O’Brien, Patrick Cannone, Francis Lessard, Wacey Hamilton, Jack Downing, Maxime Gratchev, Louie Caporusso, and possibly Andre Petersson.”