No extension talk in Carolina yet
Cory Lavalette: There is no news on any potential contract extension for Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton, forward Andrei Svechnikov or head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Round one of interviews for the Panthers GM position may be done
John Shannon: Florida Panthers GM candidates are waiting to hear if they’ll get a second interview. Panthers President Matthew Caldwell and Sr VP Travis Viola conducted the first interviews.
Craig Morgan: Source saying the Florida Panthers have interviewed Sean Burke for their vacant GM position.
Mark Divver: John Ferguson Jr, interviewed for the Panthers GM position.
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Headlines on the Panthers GM search.
“They’ve done a lot of their interviews this week, they’re going to narrow their list of candidates — we’ve reported a lot of them, you’ve heard a lot of the names out there,” Friedman said. “But there’s two I’d like to add to the list.
“Bill Armstrong, the assistant GM of the Blues, who are now eliminated. And also Kevin Weekes, our former teammate who now works at the NHL Network, I believe he’s been interviewed by the Panthers, too.”
Friedman had previously reported that they have been linked to Chris Drury, Michael Futa and Scott Mellanby, and were expected to contact John Ferguson Jr. and Laurence Gilman.
Ron Hextall and Ross Mahoney could also be candidates.
The Blue Jackets have some cap space they could use to their advantage this offseason
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen said the growing within is key for them and that he doesn’t believe that free agency is “the answer or recipe for success.” They do have some salary cap space to add an impact forward or two through free agency or trade.
The Blue Jackets could use pending RFA forward Josh Anderson as a trade piece.
“It’s easy to be the armchair GM, or whatever they call it, and say, ‘OK, trade this guy for that guy.’ There’s 30 other teams,” Kekalainen reminded. “They’re all pretty smart people, and they don’t just give away their players. It’s a little harder to make a trade than a lot of people imagine.”
