Blues extend Marco Scandella
Jim Thomas: The St. Louis Blues have signed defenseman Marco Scandella to a four-year contract extension worth $3.275 million per season.
Jeremy Rutherford: Don’t believe that the Blues extending Scandella will have much of an effect if Alex Pietrangelo re-signs or not.
GM Jim Rutherford wouldn’t have re-signed Scandella if he knew it would jeopardize being able to extend Pietrangelo.
There was some belief that Jay Bouwmeester (before his medical situation) might have been re-signed. That money may be going to Scandella now.
Renaud Lavoie: Salary breakdown.
2020-21 $2.7M,
2021-22 $3.55M,
2022-23 $3.85M,
2023-24 $3M
Canadiens add a pick from Scandella trade condition
Chris Johnston: With the Blues extending Marco Scandella, the Montreal Canadiens will now receive a 2021 fourth-round pick to go along with the 2020 second-round pick.
Pinto heading back to school
Brad Schlossman: Ottawa Senators prospect Shane Pinto told the Senators yesterday that he’ll be returning to UND for his sophomore season.
Andrei Markov retires
NHL.com: 41-year old defenseman Andrei Markov retired from hockey yesterday according to his agent.
“Andrei will turn 42 this year and he must take care of his family,” agent Sergey Isakov told La Presse. “He is a very smart guy and he understands that his time has come.”
Markov played in 990 NHL games over 16 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. He had spent the past three seasons playing in the KHL – last year with Lokomotiv, and the previous two years with Ak Bars.
“It was his dream to finish his career in Montreal,” Isakov said. “He really wanted to, but there’s nothing he can do about it. The general manager only wanted to offer a one-year contract (in 2017), while Andrei was looking for a two-year deal.
“After that, Andrei and I discussed the possibility of a return to Montreal, but it didn’t materialize. It’s too bad, because he really wanted to play 1,000 games for the Canadiens.”