- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Ilya Kovalchuk wants to play in Los Angeles, and the Kings would like to have, but the Kings won’t pay the money/term that Kovalchuk wants. The Kings may be looking to avoid a ‘Blackhawks’ situation, with several young cornerstone to be signed. The Kings (and other teams) don’t want to pay in the $10 million range, as it’s difficult to build a competitive team around that player in the ‘cap era’.
But perhaps more intriguing is this rumor making the circles among owners and team executives — the league will fight for a lower salary cap (by changing the way the percentages are calculated in order to get a lower cap) in the next collective bargaining agreement two years from now (the players will likely be led into the next labor talks by the battled-tested Donald Fehr and will certainly have a say in that).
The announcement of Nikolai Zherdev signing may be on hold until the player transfer from the KHL to NHL goes through. Simon Gagne hasn’t agreed to waive his no-trade clause, yet. “I have a no-trade clause and I haven’t removed it,” Gagne said in French on RDS (the French sister network of TSN). “But certainly the Flyers have cap issues and I’m a player with one year left on my deal … The next few days will maybe help us find out what’s going to happen in my case.”
- Darren Dreger via Twitter: Flyers could be waiting to move Simon Gagne before announce Nikolai Zherdev. Gagne could be placed on waivers if a trade isn’t found, according to some NHL executives.
- Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald: The Boston Bruins have had initial talks with Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, both would unrestricted free agents next July 1st. Talks will pick up later in the summer, and they hope to have both deals locked up before the season starts. David Krejci will have the screws removed from broken wrist in 4 weeks, but still should be ready for the beginning of training camp.
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson would like to add a puck moving defenseman, and has done some investigating, but nothing is imminent. Possible targets could be Kevin Bieksa, Tomas Kaberle and Sheldon Souray.
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: “nothing going on right now” according to Marty Turco. Turco turned down a 3 year, $6 million deal from Philadelphia. Philly may not have the money to offer Turco another deal. He might have to settle with a 1 year deal in the $2 million range to prove himself. Heika still thinks he’ll land with the San Jose Sharks.