Scouting Evander Kane?
Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Pittsburgh Penguins Director of Pro Scouting Ryan Bowness was to be in attendance for Evander Kane’s first AHL game of the season yesterday.
Among the other teams scheduled to watch Kane were the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Dallas Stars.
Some teams may have pre-planned to be at the San Jose Barracuda game and possibly weren’t specifically there to watch Kane. All the mentioned teams could use a player like Kane though.
Penguins AGM will interest the Canucks
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman notes that one issue Jim Rutherford and the Vancouver Canucks might have in their GM search is getting permission to talk to potential candidates in-season.
Current Seattle Kraken assistant GM Jason Botterill has been speculated as a candidate. Botterill has Penguins ties and is not the only one.
“One dark horse name to keep an eye on is Patrick Allvin from Pittsburgh,” Friedman said. “He worked with Rutherford with the Penguins and was the interim GM after left and before Ron Hextall took over.”
2024-25 will see the cap jump
Sportsnet: The NHL salary cap is going to go up $1 million next season and there could be a big jump for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Jeff Marek said last night that, that will be good for two Canadien teams who will have some free agents to re-sign.
“Gary Bettman mentioned something interesting as well, he said in three seasons … the NHL players will have paid off their escrow debt and the salary cap will get a significant bump.
And that pleased two Canadian teams, specifically the Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks because Auston Matthews‘ and William Nylander‘s deals are up then, and for the Vancouver Canucks, for whomever the general manager is, will have a clean slate to work on Elias Pettersson‘s next contract.”
Matthews and Nylander would be unrestricted free agents and Pettersson would still be an RFA.