Gunnarsson retires
Lou Korac: St. Louis Blue defenseman Carl Gunnarsson on his retirement: “It’s just been growing in my mind for a little bit and I felt like this was the right time. Proud and happy of my career and what I’ve done. I just felt like this is a good time right now.”
Van Ryn no longer Coyotes candidate
Jeremy Rutherford: St. Louis Blues assistant coach Mike Van Ryn is no longer a head coaching candidate for the Arizona Coyotes.
Kraken call for a news conference
Stephen Whyno: The Seattle Kraken announced that they will be having a news conference this morning.
Johnson and coaching staff transferring to Abbotsford from Utica
Brendan Batchelor: Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning confirms that Ryan Johnson will be the GM of Abbotsford. The coaching staff from Utica will be transferring as well.
Okulov to remain in Russia
Eric Engels: 26-year old Konstantin Okulov signed a one-year deal with a one-year option with CSKA in the KHL.
The Montreal Canadiens were one of the teams interested in Okulov.
Kucherov leaves last night’s game early with an injury
Joe Smith: Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper didn’t have an update on forward Nikita Kucherov after the game.
Joe Smith: Lightning’s Steven Stamkos said that the refs told him that they didn’t consider Scott Mayfield‘s cross check on Kucherov as “malicious.”
Joe Smith: Lightning coach Jon Cooper on the cross check: “I don’t think that’s in the rule book. That cross checks have to be malicious. I just know it happened really close to one of the officials. He didn’t see it. Move on.”
Stephen Whyno: Not saying that this is the issue, but the cross check is pretty close to the right hip that Kucherov had surgery on that required him to miss the entire regular season.
So its looking like this cross-check (no call on the play) on Kucherov is what caused him to leave the game… pic.twitter.com/p2xFSApas4
— alberto 🇮🇹🇵🇹 (@twistedleafs) June 24, 2021