- Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald: Flames GM Jay Feaster said they were interested in signing some of the top college free agents, but it didn’t pan out. The Flames lose $13 million off their books if they don’t bring back Olli Jokinen, Cory Sarich, Lee Stempniak, David Moss, Scott Hannan Tom Kostopoulos, Raitis Ivanans, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Niklas Hagman (were paying part of his contract).
“With the number of unrestricted free agents that we have and where we sit relative to the (salary) cap,” Feaster says, “there is an opportunity to do a lot of different things.
“We need to get better and we need to do it in a hurry.”
To go along with Zach Parisea and Ryan Suter, other free agents are: Alex Semin, Jason Arnott, Michal Rozsival, Barret Jackman, Ray Whitney, Pavel Kubina, Shane Doan, Brad Boyes, Joe Corvo, Jiri Hudler, Johnny Oduya, Ryan Smyth, Matt Carle, etc. Flames RFAs are Blake Comeau, Mikael Backlund, Blair Jones, Leland Irving, Paul Byron and Akim Aliu.
- Elliotte Friedman of CBC.ca: Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson wants to see the draft lottery expended so that more teams have a chance at moving up. In the NBA, every team in the lottery has a chance at moving up, only the top 5 in the NHL.
- Philadelphia Flyers via twitter: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren said that defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon has an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.
- Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times: Blackhawks Jonathan Toews will say today whether or not he’ll play tonight, and signs are pointing to that he will. Toews said that he didn’t feel any symptoms at practiced and that he would be surprised if he didn’t play.
- Jonathan Willis of the Edmonton Journal: Oilers forward Linus Omark tweets an apparent trade request:
I live to show that the “two” are wrong. But I really hope edm let me have a chance in another nhl team
Omark is a RFA and has been subject to trade rumors before. The Oilers will likely try to deal his rights at the draft.
- Lisa Halverstadt of the Arizona Republic: Former Sharks CEO Greg Jamison is the only potential buyer that is negotiating with the City of Glendale. Jamison’s group has been talking for the past 7 to 10. City Council met on Tuesday and it was decided to keep the negotiations going.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Avalanche coach Joe Sacco received a 2 year contract extension.
- John Vogl of the Buffalo News: Despite missing the playoffs 3 of the last 5 years, and 6 of 10, Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier will return next year for their 16th season with the team.
- Shea Weber slams Henrik Zetterberg’s head in to the glass, WWE turnbuckle style: