- Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun: The Canucks have moved Ryan Kesler from center to right wing with Derek Roy and Chris Higgins. Max Lapierre centered Mason Raymond and Jannik Hansen on the third line. Zack Kassian moved to a line with Andrew Ebbett and Dale Weise. 2012 1st round pick Brendan Gaunce will be practicing with the team.
- Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer: The Hurricanes will be spending closer to the $64.3 salary cap next season, something that hasn’t happened in awhile.
“We have been a budget team for a long time,” Rutherford acknowledged. “But we are now at the point where we’re going to be a lot closer to the cap than not. We’ll probably be at about $60, $61 million next year. Now we’re getting into that area. We know we had to do that with the change of divisions.”
The Hurricanes spent $57 million this past season, and sit at $56 million already for next year. If they move out Drayson Bowman, Justin Peters and Jamie McBain, it could clear out $2.9 million.
DeCock wonders if the Hurricanes should explore trading Jeff Skinner, but only if it brings back a “defenseman of comparable quality. He has defensive issues, a history of concussions and his contract goes up to $5.75 million next season.
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Flyers Ilya Bryzgalov said he wore down this season. At one point in he started 31 of 32 games, including 22 in a row. Steve Mason is happy with a fresh start in Philly.
“The last three years in Columbus beat me down, mentally, more than anything else,” he said in a phone interview the other day. “There were a lot of expectations we couldn’t meet, and you work hard to get them, and we couldn’t get results.
“I left the baggage there and got a fresh start.”
