- Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune: Lightning owner Jeff Vinik when he heard that Martin St. Louis wanted to be traded.
“A little sadness and disappointment at the time,’’ Vinik said before Thursday night’s game against the Sabres.
Vinik wanted him to stay.
“We would’ve loved to have seen Marty finish his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning sweater on,’’ Vinik said. “I was very direct in telling him that my dream is that you finish your career here and you lead us to another Stanley Cup.
“But I understand Marty’s reasons. It played out the way it did and we wish him well. He’s been a great player for this organization, is arguably the best player we’ve had in our history, and I hope things go great for him and his family in New York.’’
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren said they got the defenseman they targeted in Andrew MacDonald and didn’t see the need to bring a high-scoring rental winger.Carchidi thinks they Flyers still need to go all-in this offseason for a No. 1 defenseman. If Kimmo Timonen retires and they don’t re-sign Steve Downie, they’ll have about $12 million in salary cap space.Shea Weber is due a $13 million bonus on July 1st. With the Predators at the bottom of the Central Division, GM David Poile may be ready to shake things up. He might hold a grudge against the Flyers due to the Weber’s offer sheet though.
- Terry Frei of the Denver Post: Avs GM Joe Sakic received some offers for Paul Stastny at the deadline. Stastny hopes to re-sign.
Sakic said he got inquiries “from a couple of different teams” about Stastny. “But nothing came out of it,” he added. “We are very happy that Paul’s still here. His agent wants to deal with it, they want to deal with it, in the summer.”
- Bruce Garrioch: Senators GM Bryan Murray said he didn’t get a lot of action on Jason Spezza at the deadline. There was talk that the Ducks may have inquired about Spezza.
“I had two teams call. They said they read the newspapers in their town and there was something in it. Beyond that, I didn’t get any calls,” said Murray
- Anthony SanFilippo of Flyers Inside Out: The Flyers received a conditional 3rd round pick from the Bruins for defenseman Andrej Meszaros. If the Bruins make the Conference Finals and Meszaros players in two-thirds of their playoff games, the Flyers would get a 2nd round pick.
