NHL News: Lundqvist, Stevens, Maatta To Kings, Jets Qualifying Offers, and Sekera Re-Signs
Lundqvist wants to continue playing?

Henrik Lundqvist: “I still love to compete. I still love the game and I still want to WIN!”

Blues sign Stevens

St. Louis Blues: The St. Louis Blues have signed Nolan Stevens to a one-year, two-way contract. He’ll get $700,000 in the NHL and $80,000 in the AHL.

Kings acquire Maatta from Blackhawks

John Dietz: The Chicago Blackhawks trade defenseman Olli Maatta to the Los Angeles Kings for prospect Brad Morrison. The Blackhawks are retaining $750,108 of Maatta’s $4,083,333 salary.

Puck Pedia: “After adding Maatta ($3.33M net Cap Hit), the #LAKings have $13.6M Projected Cap Space w/ 19 Players (11F/6D/2G), including $11M Dead Cap Hit (Kovalchuk $6.25M, Phaneuf $4M, Richards $700K).

RFA: Prokhorin
UFA: Lewis, Hutton, Ryan”

Jimmy Greenfield: “Obviously, Kings win this trade. They get an NHL defenseman and the Hawks get a non-prospect in return. But as a salary dump, it was necessary and helps the Hawks to sign their RFAs. Then again, it makes the Hawks worse today than when they were yesterday.”

John Hoven: “You want a steal for LA? Send away a contract for a guy who was never going to play in LA.

Have the other team retain money on the player you’re acquiring. And get a LHD that you desperately needed.

Damn near genius.”

Jets send out qualifying offers

Winnipeg Jets PR: Jets send qualifying offers to Mason Appleton, Jansen Harkins, Sami Niku, Nelson Nogier, Jack Roslovic and C.J. Suess.

Sara Orlesky: Michael Spacek was the only pending RFA that didn’t receive a qualifying offer.

Stars re-sign Sekera

Puck Pedia: The Dallas Stars have re-signed defenseman Andrej Sekera to a two-year contract with a salary cap hit of $1.5 million.

David Pagnotta: Stars GM Jim Nill on Sekera: “Andrej did an outstanding job coming in and immediately making a difference on our back end last season. With his intelligence and experience, we look forward to Andrej continuing to play an impactful role in our defense corps.”

Matthew DeFranks: “Jim Nill likes signing veteran defensemen as insurance policies and depth options (Polak and Sekera). So it’s not shocking the Stars bring back an experienced player like Sekera. Probably removes any chance the Stars go after any other FA defensemen.”