NHL Rumors II: Yakupov, Giguere and Laughton
  • Kristina Rutherford of SportsNet: Oilers coach Dallas Eakins on Nail Yakupov.

    “My relationship with Nail is a great one,” Eakins told Sportsnet The Fan 590’s Greg Brady and Andrew Walker on Monday. “That’s why I kind of chuckle with the way it gets drawn out in the media. You take a kid out of the lineup and suddenly there’s a big fight going on. Well, there’s no fight. Nail understood what was going on.”

    Yakupov struggled last season.

    “There’s an evolution to a player like Nail,” Eakins says. “He’s still learning the game; he’s extremely inexperienced.

    “I’m very hopeful and fairly confident that he’s gonna have a great rebound year.”

  • Renaud Lavoie: Avs J.S.
    Giguere
    wants to speak with his agent and the PA before officially announcing his retirement.
  • Tim Riday of CSN Philly: Could Flyers prospects Scott Laughton make the team next year?

    “That’s going to play out in training camp,” Hextall said. “The one thing I don’t even like when hockey people talk about their team in next year, this year, coming up in September and saying ‘OK, Player X is on it and Player Y is on it and Player Z is on it.’

    “No, these are the players that are on it, these guys got to work their way on it. So all these young guys are going to have to come in and have great camps and then we’ll see if we think it’s best for their development.”