Keep an eye on the Columbus Blue Jackets
Mark Scheig: Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell on 97.1 radio, @971RandI: “might come through the pipeline in the next little bit.”
It’s been well documented that the Blue Jackets would like to add a forward.
Will Jeremy Swayman‘s offer get pulled?
Jimmy Murphy: A source on Boston Bruins president Cam Neely‘s ‘$64 million reason’ offer to Jeremy Swayman:
“They’re likely going to pull that off the table once the season starts.”
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Jamie Benn doesn’t want to contract during the season, and Jake Oettinger will need a new contract as well
Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News: The Dallas Stars have a lot of players who are scheduled to be free agents after the season – both restricted and unrestricted. Included on that list are Jamie Benn and Jake Oettinger.
Stars GM Jim Nill said that he’s going to talk to all his pending free agents before the start of the season, but Benn won’t be one of them as Benn told Nill this offseason that he didn’t want to sign before the start of the season.
“I asked him, ‘Do you want to start talking about two years down the road yet?’ He was very clear: ‘Jim, I just want to win this year and make decisions from there.’” Nill said. “He’s all in with the team. It’s a little bit of Joe Pavelski’s theory of wait and see what are the needs of the team and how can I help out?”
Nill added that he wants Benn to be with the Stars as long as he is the GM.
Oettinger will be an RFA with arbitration rights and his coming off a three-year deal at $4 million per. His next deal is going to be much bigger.
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“We’re going to talk to Jake. There’s still some contracts out there to be signed, which are going to affect that. So really, no rush for that to happen,” Nill said. “Really any of our RFAs, we’re going to talk to them and just say, ‘Are you interested in signing or do you want to wait and see what the market is?’”