- Tom Reifsnyder of the Philadelphia Daily News: The Flyers currently have about $670,000 in cap space, but if/when Andrew MacDonald clears waivers and is assigned to the AHL, they’ll gain an extra $950,000 in cap space.
“Well, it’s disappointing, I guess,” general manager Ron Hextall said of waiving MacDonald. “It’s just more we’re caught in a tough place here and we had to make a tough decision putting our best team on the ice and creating a roster spot and some cap space, so it was a tough decision.
“Obviously, we know Mac’s a good NHL player and . . . is it what we wanted to do? No. If we could have avoided it, we would have.”
GM Ron Hextall kept defenseman Luke Schenn and his $3.6 million cap hit as their seventh defenseman. Schenn may be easier to trade as he’s in the last year of his deal. Sam Gagner and Vincent Lecavalier were their ‘extra skaters’ in practice. That, along with Schenn as their seventh defenseman, they have about $11.3 million in cap space as scratches.
- Elliotte Friedman: Canadiens Zach Kassian has been suspended without pay and will be placed into Stage 2 of the Substance Abuse program.
- Eric Macramalla: Even if the circumstances of Zack Kassian’s car accident are the worst case scenario, the Canadiens couldn’t terminate his contract.
- Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News: Kevin Hayes was called out at the start of camp by coach Alain Vigneault for showing up in poor shape, got promoted to their second line with Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan. J.T. Miller had a strong preseason in their top-six, but will start with Oscar Lindberg and Viktor Stalberg on the third line.
- Kyle Shohara: The Ducks assigned John Gibson, Chris Mueller, Nick Ritchie, Korbinian Holzer and Joe Piskula to San Diego of the AHL. Kenton Helgesen and Nate Thompson were put on the IR.
- Frank Seravalli: The Panthers sent 2015 first round pick Lawson Crouse back to Kingston of the OHL.
- Corey Pronman: The Sharks have cut Nikolai Goldobin and Mirco Mueller. That means that Joonas Donskoi and Dylan DeMelo made the team to start the season.
- ESPN: The Blues signed Scottie Upshall to a one-year, two-way contract. They assigned Magnus Paajarvi, Ty Rattie, Chris Butler and Petteri Lindbohm to the AHL.