On the Washington Capitals …
John Shannon: As of Friday night as 7:00 PM, have been told that the Capitals hadn’t offered head coach Barry Trotz a contract yet. As of that time, there had been no meetings planned.
On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Joe Smith: There have been no contract talks between the Lightning and pending RFA J.T. Miller. Talks will likely start at the draft. Miller is arbitration eligible and it’s not expected that he’d accept a qualifying offer. Everything is quiet regarding Nikita Kucherov as well. There will likely be no contract extension talks until training camp. Kucherov will still be a restricted free agent next offseaon and he would be arbitration eligible, so there is no rush.
On the Toronto Maple Leafs …
Chris Johnston: According to GM Kyle Dubas, no teams had asked the Maple Leafs permission to speak with Sheldon Keefe yet.
On the Boston Bruins …
Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com: The Boston Bruins plan on speaking with free agent Ilya Kovalchuk, who has already met with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks.
If the Bruins were able to sign Kovalchuk, it would mean that Rick Nash wouldn’t be coming back. The Bruins have talked to Nash’s camp.
“Financially, I just don’t think it’s doable unless you’re really doing something to change things around to open things up,” Sweeney said of signing Kovalchuk and Nash. “It’s more of the cap implications of exploring both those players. Any team would say, ‘Well, boy we’re a better team.’ That’s just not realistic. I’ve been honest about that.
“But we’ve had conversations with Rick’s camp as well. … You just stay in communication. I think Rick enjoyed his time here. We enjoyed having him. The injury was a factor at times, but he represents a lot of stuff that we needed. So we’ve got to continue to explore those things, and see how the jigsaw puzzle fits.”
The Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars are two other teams that have shown some interest in Kovalchuk
