On the Calgary Flames …
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: The Flames have already started contract negotiations with Joe Colborne. Colborne’s agent, J.P. Barry was in Russia co-GMing Team Canada last month.
“Since he’s been back, I know we’ve been in some talks, and hopefully we’re getting closer and closer,” Colborne told Sportsnet 960 The Fan on Wednesday.
“I’m not thinking that it’s going to take too, too long here.”
On the New York Rangers …
Brett Cyrgalis of the NY Post: The Rangers are thought to be near the top of teams that will be calling Jimmy Vesey when he becomes a free agent on August 15th. The most logical landing spots for Vesey are the Maple Leafs or the Bruins. Crimson coach Ted Donato.
“Certainly the Rangers are always a marquee National Hockey League team,” Donato said. “I think just like the others, you can find reasons that they would be great places. But is close to home, but it’s not home, so you don’t get the pressures of coming back here.”
On trading negotiation rights …
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: In recent years, teams trading for negotiations rights is becoming more infrequent, and the draft picks are not as good as they once were.
“Draft picks are gold,” Walsh says. “So if you’re going to start giving away sixth-round picks or seventh-round picks, you only have a couple of those to give away, and those are valuable too.”
With the ability for teams to speak with pending free agents before July 1st, there is no panic from teams as there once was.
“Now, there is no panic. There is no desperation,” Walsh says. “Teams are going into July 1 with their deals in hand. The players are pretty much signed by the end of the interview period, and July 1 is pretty much a formality now as opposed to a frenzy. And the word frenzy is a great description of what used to happen on July 1.”
Fox notes that there have been times where a verbal agreement is made between two teams, going like “We’ll give you 24 or 48 hours to woo Player X. If he agrees to sign with you, then we’ll trade you him for Y. If no agreement is reached, there is no deal on paper and no one will ever know we granted you permission to talk to our player.”