On the Buffalo Sabres …
Emily Sadler of Sportsnet: The Buffalo Sabres need to change things up. They are last in the league again with a 6-17-4 record and have dropped 11 of 12.
“There’s a sense from other teams that the Sabres are sending signals that they are open for business, and you can ask about anybody whose name is not Jack Eichel,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said during Saturday’s Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada. “Now, I do think if you’re going to ask about a Ristolainen or a Marco Scandella or a Sam Reinhart, you better be coming with a serious offer because I don’t think Buffalo is going to trade those guys unless the offer is great. But I think they are prepared to listen to everyone except the franchise player.”
Friedman spoke with a couple teams and asked them what they thought the potential return for Evander Kane could be:
“If you go back and look at a couple of deadline deals from the past couple of years, Andrew Ladd and Martin Hanzal, look at what their two teams got: Winnipeg got Marko Dano, a first-round pick, and a conditional pick for Ladd from Chicago, and Arizona got a first, a second and a fourth from Minnesota for Hanzal and Ryan White.”
On the Los Angeles Kings …
Emily Sadler of Sportsnet: Nick Kypreos last night on “Headlines” on the Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty on his comments about wanting more money on his next contract than P.K. Subban. The Kings don’t have a problem with his comments are will make it a priority to get something done as soon as can on July 1st. Doughty could be looking for more than Anze Kopitar’s eight-year, $80 million deal.
“They understand that he will put himself in a position to be higher than the highest paid player in L.A., which is Kopitar at $10 million,” Kypreos said. “But for them to remain competitive in years to come, I don’t think that they’re willing to give him, basically, a top-leveled kind of contract. I do believe that it will be slightly higher, but not to the point where he prices himself out completely out of a competitive team for years to come.”