- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Blues and Alex Pietrangelo continue to negotiate and it’s possible it could lead to a holdout.
“There’s really nothing to report,” Armstrong said. “My belief is that it’s better to stay quiet until we have a conclusion to it and we’re not there now.
“It’s not something that I’m overly concerned about at this particularly time. We’ve got six weeks until training camp and these things get done at different times. Alex knows we want him here, Alex wants to be here and at the right time things will take shape.”
Agent Don Meehan said “we have had discussions,” but wouldn’t comment further. As has been mentioned before, Pietrangelo is looking for something around $7 million and the Blues seem to be unwilling to go over $6 million.
“It’s just finding out is it a maximum-term contract of eight years or do both sides feel it’s better to go short?” Armstrong said. “We’re going to work hand-in-hand with Alex because it’s not a win-lose. We’re hoping to find a win-win for both sides.”
- Steve Simmons: The Maple Leafs have to sign Cody Franson and Nazem Kadri. They would need to clear cap space before the start of the season if/when they sign both. Simmons thinks the Leafs will head into training being over the salary cap, then figure out what to do with John-Michael Liles or someone else at that point.
- David Staples of the Edmonton Journal: A Swedish paper was noting that Linus Omark is determined to return to the NHL. A Swedish team is trying to bring him into the fold. His rights still belong to the Oilers and they may finally willing to trade his rights.
“It is true that this is the NHL. But he is not finished yet and I will not say which club it is about. It feels closer than they did in the past and there have been some ways to go.”
Bob Stauffer responding to this: “Further to @dstaples blog on Linus Omark and a report out of a Swedish paper. The #Oilers are NOT close to a deal involving Omark’s rights.”
- JoAnne Ireland of the Edmonton Journal: Oilers GM Craig MacTavish doesn’t seem too concerned that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins may not be ready to start the season after his shoulder surgery.
“That’s a big hole if he’s not ready, but we’ll overcome through that through depth and some of the additions we’ve had. Arcobello will get a good look, Andrew Miller, Will Acton, Anton Lander. I’m sure we’ll be able to offset Nuge’s absence in the short term.”
“We’re still operating under the same forecast we had initially (before the shoulder surgery). All things are very optimistic now … but the timeline before was that he’d be ready Nov. 1, in a very pessimistic timeline, and optimistically he’d be ready to start the year. We’re going to stay with that and let his progression dictate when he’s ready. We won’t be hurrying him, that’s for sure.”
- Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer: It doesn’t appear that Chad LaRose will be back with the Hurricanes as he’s disappeared quietly.
“His contract with the Hurricanes expired June 30. He didn’t show up for his end-of-season exit interview, according to Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford. He has not been reachable through multiple phone or text messages this summer.
The odd circumstances of his exit are a strange and silent end to an unlikely and unexpected tenure with the Hurricanes. It began without fanfare 10 years ago Tuesday. It ended without fanfare this summer.“
- Red Line Report: ” Extremely revealing that the junior developing almost is gone in both Czech and Slovakia. The trend continues with Russian as well; teams will take high-ends Russians already playing in NA and then gamble on high-end still in Russia, all others need not to apply.