- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Before the Senators traded Jason Spezza to Dallas, they had been working on trading another forward. The deal may have fallen through or put on the back burner. Teams have told the Sun that Colin Greening and Eric Condra are available.
- Craig Custance of ESPN: Red Wings right handed defenseman Alexey Marchenko will get a shot to make the big club if they don’t pull off a trade for a defenseman. The Bruins need to move one of their eight defensemen out. Senators Bobby Ryan is entering the last year of his deal and could be the next big name leaving Ottawa. The Maple Leafs could be the front-runner for Mike Babcock if he doesn’t re-sign with the Red Wings next summer.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Ryan O’Reilly is happy they didn’t have to sit through an arbitration hearing, arguing back and forth. The Avalanche were confident they would have won, but they also knew it may not sit well with agent Pat Morris and possibly O’Reilly.
“I said to Joe, ‘If you win, you also lose,’ and that everybody would lose — the club, the player and the fans,” Morris said. “Joe was very professional about it and very prepared, as was Greg Sherman. We both knew what our upside and our downside was, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see the path to where the middle point was.
“It’s always a positive when we create a free negotiation based on what we do as opposed to a third party.”
Joe Sakic said it won’t be a sign-and-trade situation.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Dater thinks O’Reilly will be off the trade market for at least a year. He’ll be a UFA in two years.
- Mike Chambers: Before the O’Reilly signing yesterday, the Avalanche had about $8,844,000 in salary cap space. When they are able to sign Tyson Barrie, they will be very close to the salary cap.
- Craig Morgan: Hearing that the Canadiens submitted a $1.65 salary arbitration number for Lars Eller, who submitted $3.1 million.