Next season won’t start earlier than December
Sportsnet 650: Chris Johnston said on Sportsnet that the earliest the 2020-21 season would start is in December.
Vancouver is interested in hosting games
Satiar Shah: The Vancouver Canucks confirmed that they do have an interest in being a hub city to hosting NHL games. They would need the approval of health authorities and knowing that it could be done safely.
Panthers sign Denisenko
Jon Lane: The Florida Panthers have signed Grigori Denisenko to a three-year entry-level contract.
Underrated UFAs
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: (mailbag) Underrated potential unrestricted free agents this offseason. Colorado Avalanche’s Vladislav Namestnikov provides penalty killing and secondary scoring.
Right-handed defenseman Radko Gudas plays with an edge and cut back his penalty minutes,
Dallas Stars backup Anton Khudobin posted a 16-8 record this season to go along with a .930 save percentage.
Dubas and Fletcher on the NHL draft
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said they use whatever time they have to prepare for the draft. They don’t select until No. 50, but they have 10 picks in total.
“We have 10 picks, and a lot of them are later on,” Dubas said. “So rather than try to worry about when it’s going to be, our organization has felt that we have to use whatever time we have — whether it’s four weeks from now or whether it’s four months — to really, really try to hone in our focus on making sure we make the most of those picks. Because they’re going to be imperative to the future progress of our program.”
Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher GM isn’t in favor of a June draft.
“From a general manager standpoint, I’m not in favour of it,” Chuck Fletcher added Monday on Hockey Central at Noon. “The draft is often a great time to reset your roster after season. You can often use draft picks to acquire players, or trade players to acquire draft picks, and it’ll make it a little bit more difficult to reset the roster at the end of the year.”
