On the Columbus Blue Jackets …
Aaron Portzline: The Blue Jackets will be buying out the final two years of defenseman Fedor Tyutin contract. Going against the salary cap will be $1.21 million this year, $1.96 million next year, and $1.46 million for the final two years.
Frank Seravalli: Aside from gaining the extra salary cap space, the Blue Jackets now don’t have to protect him in next years expansion draft.
Cap Friendly: After the buyout, the Blue Jackets now have about $3.3 million in cap space with 20 players under contract.
On the Minnesota Wild …
Michael Russo: The Wild are close to re-signing Tyler Graovac.
Evan Sporer of Wild.NHL: Wild GM Chuck Fletcher while at the draft:
“There didn’t seem to be a whole bunch of activity here this weekend,” Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher said. “I thought there would be more, and there wasn’t. We’ll see what that means, if it means there will be more trade activity in the next week or two, or maybe there will just be free agent activities.
“It’s hard to gauge where the overall market will go, but from our standpoint, we’re going to have opportunities here in the next week to improve our team, and if we can, we will.”
Fletcher later added.
“The trade market is not something we can completely control,” Fletcher said. “That’s the more difficult one to predict.
“There are going to be opportunities based on the conversations with other teams. I know a lot of teams are looking for elements that they didn’t acquire the last couple of days, and whether they choose to satisfy those requirements through a trade or through free agency, we’ll find out. There should be a little bit more of a shakeout here.”
On the Buffalo Sabres …
Joe Smith: If the Sabres were to sign Steven Stamkos to a seven year, $12 million per year deal, the Lightning would need to go $9.75 million a year over eight years for the same after tax numbers according to @SportsTaxMan
John Vogl of the Buffalo News: Kyle Okposo will have plenty of teams interested in the signing the UFA come Friday. In the past three years he’s scored 67 goals, adding 117 assists for 184 points in 201 games. The Sabres are one of the teams interested.
The Sabres are looking for a backup goalie. Available options include Chad Johnson (with the Sabres last year) Anton Khudobin, James Reimer, Al Montoya, Karri Ramo, Alex Stalock, Carter Hutton and Jhonas Enroth.
Some available UFA defensemen include Brian Campbell, Kris Russell, Jason Demers, Luke Schenn, Dan Hamhuis, Kyle Quincey and Jared Cowen.