- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Patrick Roy’s brother, Stephane, is saying that Patrick will be the next coach of the Colorado Avalanche.
“They’re discussing the final details of an arrangement. Colorado is going to be very happy. Patrick is looking for a new challenge,” said Stephane Roy, the younger brother of his famous sibling.
The Avalanche wouldn’t confirm and Patrick couldn’t be reached.
- Renaud Lavoie: It’s premature to say that Patrick Roy is the head coach of the Avalanche as it’s not a done deal.
- Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province: The Canucks coaching staff including Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown, are still waiting to learn their fate from GM Mike Gillis. The trio don’t understand why they haven’t heard anything yet.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: The Avalanche’s chief scout, Rick Parcey, said that Seth Jones being their likely top pick in the draft is premature.
“The No. 1 spot, it’s open,” Pracey told me. “You know, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin and Alexander Barkov, and you can go into other guys. There are others out there – Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm – that are very, very interesting players. It’s by far not a slam dunk. It’s not one player that’s running away with this thing.”
Dater would still bet on the Avs draft Jones as he fills a big need on the blueline.
“We have to be looking at the best player available,” Pracey said. “When you’re holding the No. 1 pick, you still have to maintain that philosophy. We’re after not only the most talented kid right now, but long into the future. We hope this is a 10-15 year player for us. We have to make sure we have all our bases covered. They’re all good players, and we’ve had an extreme amount of coverage on these top kids, and now we’re entering the secondary phase.”
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Carchidi lists some names who could be there when the Flyers pick 11th overall in the 2013 NHL draft: Darnell Nurse (D), Rasmus Ristolainen (D), Ryan Pulock (D), Hunter Shinkaruk (C/LW), Frederik Gauthier (C), Sean Monahan (C) and Nikita Zadorov (D).
- Katie Carrera of the Washington Post: The Capitals will have tough UFA decisions on Mike Ribeiro and valuable fourth-liner Matt Hendricks. Hendricks kills penalties, drops the gloves if need be and is respected by teammates and coaches. He’s likely due a raise from the $800,000 he earned this past season. He hopes to remain in Washington.
“It’s a big part of the business when it comes to players’ salaries,” Hendricks said. “You want to get what you feel you deserve and what is right, and that’s what happens in the negotiating process.”
The Capitals currently sit about $6.2 million under next seasons $64.3 million salary cap.
“When you’re in a cap world, sometimes you just don’t have choices,” McPhee said. “This is what you have to work with and if it doesn’t fit for them you move on, you get someone else and that’s the world we live in now.”