Bowness losing the interim tag today
Update: Officially hired Matthew DeFranks: Have been hearing that the Dallas Stars could be removing the interim tag from Rick Bowness and names him their head coach today.
Coming off a sub-par season, Andersen looks to rebound to cash in
Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: The Toronto Maple Leafs re-worked their bottom-six forward group and added T.J. Brodie to their top-four on the blue line.
Frederik Andersen is entering the final year of his contract and is coming off a season in which he had his lowest save percentage in his seven NHL season – .909.
The Leafs have Jack Campbell as backup and added Aaron Dell as insurance.
“Andersen needs to be pushed a little more,” Sportsnet analyst and former NHL goalie Greg Millen said. “There is an opportunity for that now with Campbell, who I quite like. I think he is going to need to play a lot more than he has.”
A solid regular season and playoffs could put Andersen in the group of highest-paid goalies even with the salary cap being flat next season. Nick Kypreos on his podcast thinks Andersen wouldn’t have a problem getting a deal like Jacob Markstrom – six years at $6 million per.
Andersen was in the trade rumor mill this offseason. The Leafs will have cap issues again next offseason. The Leafs will have some decisions to make. They won’t like the idea of losing him for nothing next offseason, but a Campbell-Dell tandem for the playoffs may not be the best idea.
Any additional moves by the Flames are likely to be minor
Eric Francis of Sportsnet: The Calgary Flames have about $1 million left in salary cap space. They still need to re-sign restricted free agent defenseman Oliver Kylington.
If they are to bring in any other players this offseason, they are likely to be just minor ones. They will likely send PTO’s to two or three players before the start of training camp.