On the Chicago Blackhawks …
Scott Powers of The Athletic: The Blackhawks acquired Anthony Duclair from the Coyotes for Richard Panik back on January 10th. Duclair is a pending RFA and has been out since March with an injury. He is hopeful to re-sign with the Blackhawks but there haven’t been any contract talks yet.
“We didn’t know what was going to happen with my injury,” Duclair said. “I’ll leave that to my agent and Stan . Happy he’s coming back. Obviously he traded for me. We’ll see what happens this summer, I guess.”
Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman said they’ll discuss Duclair could be back. They like the quickness he brings, but consistency has been an issue.
On the Los Angeles Kings …
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Bob McKenzie on his last Bobcast of the season. Part of thinks that Kings will look to extend Drew Doughty in July and make him a big offer – eight years and $12 million – and he’ll say okay and it’s done fairly easily. The other side of thinks that the Kings usually don’t get this done quick and with Anze Kopitar making $10 million, how much more can Doughty make than Kopitar?
“My fear would be that if they do it judiciously, which can also sometimes be perceived as grinding – if Drew Doughty at any point feels like they’re grinding him to get a deal done; knowing Drew just as an emotional, visceral guy, I could easily see him saying, ‘Nah, you know what? Screw it. Let’s just put it off. We’ll talk about it next summer’ or what have you.
“So I know you don’t have an answer to the question that you asked because obviously we don’t know. But I really believe if the Kings come in hot with a big number – maximum term – big number that would blow the defensemen’s salary scale out of the water, then I don’t see him going anywhere.
“But if this gets to be a real negotiation where it’s going back and forth and there’s a lot of questions about value and what have you, then I could see an emotional guy like Drew saying, ‘Yeah, whatever. We don’t need to do this right now. Let’s just play.’