Darren Dreger via Twitter: The Maple Leafs are to meet with Nikolai Kulemin’s agent this weekend. If he’s looking for $3 million or more, he won’t get it from the Leafs. The $2-2.5 million range may be what the Leafs are thinking.
TSN: The list of available 1st round picks continues to grow. According to various sources, picks available are: #4 Columbus Blue Jackets, #5 New York Islanders, #8 Atlanta Thrashers, #15 Florida Panthers, and #22 Phoenix Coyotes (looking for a young player and a picks, or a package of picks). Toronto has multiple offers for Kaberle, but none are good enough yet. Ribeiro and his $5 million cap hit for the next 3 years can be had.
Bob McKenzie via Twitter: Dan Hamhuis and the Philadelphia Flyers are not close on a deal, he could end up going to free agency.
Frank Seravelli via Twitter: Seravelli talked with one of his sources who said the “Flyers are NOT testing waters for Hamhuis’ rights.” They are still hoping to get a deal done.
Steve McFarlane of the Calgary Sun: The Flames need to find some scoring help. They might have to use a Robyn Regehr or Ian White to get an offensive player like Marc Savard (I don’t know why they’d want to add Marc Savard as their #1 center when they have Matt Stajan for another 4 years at $14 million … evil grin). They are without a pick in the top 2 rounds, but do have next year’s 1st rounder, as well as 2 3rd round pick, and 2 4th round picks this year. They could package some picks to move up.
Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: Trade talks with the Minnesota Wild have been player-for-player, as he’s not looking to trade roster players for draft picks. Trade bait the Wild have are Brent Burns, Nick Schultz and Josh Harding. The Wild don’t appear to have interest in Mark Savard, Jason Spezza or Mike Ribeiro.
