- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: Sources saying the Wild are interested in re-signing Clayton Stoner and Cody McCormick. GM Chuck Fletcher reached out to Stoner’s camp on Thursday. Dany Heatley and Mike Rupp won’t be brought back. There isn’t room for Ilya Bryzgalov as they will have Josh Harding, Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom under contract. Nate Prosser is expected to test free agency. Fletcher on free agency:
“We want to be a little bit careful. It’s easy this year to just go out and add a guy, but unless it’s a one-year contract, you have to be pretty mindful.”
The Wild signing pending free agent Thomas Vanek is no longer a given. The way their younger kids played and Vanek’s play this postseason may have changed things. Russo doesn’t think they will look to sign Paul Stastny or Marian Gaborik. Matt Niskanen is from Minnesota, but he’ll be looking to cash in on a big long term deal. The Wild would trade Niklas Backstrom if they found someone who’d be interested in taking on his remaining two years.
“I don’t know what we’ll end up doing,” Fletcher said. “There’s teams really actively looking to do things. If that happens where there’s a trade and then another trade, that just gets the ball rolling and gets the market juiced up and suddenly there’s players available you didn’t even know would be available. I’m looking forward to the next two weeks to see what’s out there.”
- Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly: Flyers GM Ron Hextall admitted that they’ve talked about what to do with Vincent Lecavalier.
“I’ve had discussions with but I’m not going to discuss where it’s going because quite frankly I don’t know,” Hextall said. “It’s something we’ll deal with internally here and when we come up with something we’ll let you guys know.”
Lecavalier has a no-movement clause, but could submit a list of teams he would okay a trade too. He hasn’t given a list to the Flyers, but a source said they know what it would take to move him and are looking into it. Lecavaliers agent:
“We all know they don’t want to pay him $4.5 million to be a fourth-line player,” Hughes said. “Going forward, I imagine we will be hearing from them. If not, then we go forward with next season.”
Hextall on pending restricted free agent Brayden Schenn:
“I have not talked to him as of yet, but hopefully in the next few days we’ll have our first discussion,” Hextall said. “Brayden’s our top priority in terms of wanting to get a guy signed, but there’s no real timeline there where you say this has got to happen by July 15 or July 30. It’s something that who knows how long it could go on.”