On the Buffalo Sabres …
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: Harrington on one area of the Jimmy Vesey situation: “the amount of tampering that had to be taking place in recent weeks looks ridiculous.” Vesey’s agents were doing interviews and talking about Boston, Chicago and New York.
Harrington wonders if Vesey was thinking ahead to his second contract. Rick Nash and his $7.8 million cap will be coming off the books when Vesey’s entry-level contract expires, so they’ll have plenty of available cap space.
By initially turning down a top-nine role with the Predators last season and signing with the Rangers, it shows that it’s not all about winning.
Harrington thinks the Sabres should now look at free agent forward Jiri Hudler.
Not being able to sign Vesey might be the end of the speculation of trading Evander Kane to possibly the Canucks. The Sabres may now hope that Kane can re-establish himself and increase his value.
On the Detroit Red Wings …
Ansar Khan of MLive: Tomas Tatar is entering a contract year, and he could be looking to get a contract similar to teammate Gustav Nyquist – $4.75 million a season. Tatar is also one of the Red Wings better trade chips in their attempt to acquire a top-three defenseman.
On the New York Islanders …
Brian Compton of NHL.com: The Islanders have three goalies on one-way deals – Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss and Jean-Francois Berube – and they could carry three goalies again this year.
“Healthy competition is good,” Capuano said. “I think if you look at whether you have eight defensemen or three goalies or 15 forwards … they’re all good players back there, all three of them can help us. We’ll see how it pans out. I’d be lying to you right now if I said anything different, because I don’t know. It’s a situation for me where all three guys were really good friends, they’re a close-knit group, they’re all quality goaltenders.”