NHL News: Blues, Sharks, Leafs, Oilers, Jets and Panthers
  • Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Blues signed defenseman Chris Butler to one-year, two-way deal. He’ll get $650,000 in the NHL and $400,000 in the AHL.

    “St. Louis reached out the first or second day of free agency, talked to my agent, but things didn’t sound too serious at that point,” Butler said. “Then about a week ago, I was in Europe and my agent said (Ken Hitchcock) wanted to talk to me. I had a 15-minute with Hitch and just talked about a few different things. Then just this past Monday, I had a sit-down with Doug Armstrong and we went over a handful of items, where he kind of saw me fitting in. In the last 24 hours, we kind of talked numbers and came to an agreement.”

  • Curtis Pashelka of San Jose Mercury News: The Sharks avoided salary arbitration and signed defenseman Jason Demers to a two-year contract worth $6.8 million. The Sharks are basically set on the blueline. Joining Demers are Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Justin Braun, Matt Irwin and Scott Hannan. Taylor Doherty, Mirco Mueller and Matt Tennyson will be looking for a spot.
  • James Mirtle: The Maple Leafs sign Peter Holland to a two-year deal.
  • Jim Matheson: Presuming that Tyler Pitlick and Curtis Hamilton signed their two-way qualifying offers of $850,000 with the Oilers.
  • Hockey Central: The Jets sign Carl Klingberg to a one-way, two-way contract worth $650,000.
  • George Richards: The Panthers signed Brandon Pirri to a two-year contract. The Panthers still have RFAs Dmitri Kulikov and Jimmy Hayes to re-sign.