On Will Butcher …
Mike Harrington: Will Butcher met with the New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings yesterday, but it doesn’t mean those are his final two teams. There are several teams still in play.
John Hoven: Butcher went to LA and met with Kings management. There no more scheduled meetings before he decides on where to sign, which will likely happen this weekend.
On the Detroit Red Wings …
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Darren Dreger on WGR 550 talking about the Detroit Red Wings and their salary cap situation.
“Detroit has always been that team, or a team in a group of teams, that transitions well on the fly. So he’s got a lot of work to do. And he doesn’t have a lot of cap space, to your point, to get some of that work done.
“I’m curious with some of the unrestricted free agents who are still out there as to whether or not Detroit will find a way. Thomas Vanek’s name is at the top of the page. I think that Detroit does legitimately have interest in Vanek. Between Florida and the Red Wings he scored what, 17 goals last year? So I think that they’d like to add him, but at what cost? They don’t have a lot of cap space.”
On the Buffalo Sabres …
Paul Hamilton of WGR 550: Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill this past week on ESPN 95.7 radio on Jack Eichel contract extension talks.
“It’s a new market with different contracts coming into play here and that’s where the discussions have seemed to go. It’s a scenario where both parties need to be comfortable with where the final number is going to be, but all of our discussions with Jack have been very positive.”
“The bottom line is we want to get him signed, he wants to be part of Buffalo moving forward. In all our interactions whether with myself or Phil Housley, Jack has been extremely excited about communicating with us.”