- Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly: The Flyers tried to trade Vincent Lecavalier over the weekend. He has four years left with a $4.5 million cap hit, and is owed a $2 million bonus on July 1st. The last option for GM Ron Hextall could be to buyout Lecavalier at 2/3rds of his salary, a $1.5 million cap hit over the next eight years.
“The cap just went down $2.1 million,” one source said, “the Flyers are over the cap, so the buyout here is less than the amount the cap went down and far less than they would be paying him without it.”
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: Stars GM Jim Nill on the start of free agency.
“None of us really know what’s going to happen, because there are too many teams and too many possibilities, so all you can really do is make sure your due diligence is done and you’re able to react when an opportunity is there,” Nill said. “We are fully aware of our needs and we’re fully aware of the players who can fill those needs, so it’s a matter of going out and finding the right fit.”
The Stars would like love to add a second line center and maybe a scoring winger. Issue with that is those types of players usually have large contract or the assets to acquire them through trade is high. They would also love to add legitimate No. 1 defenseman.
The Stars currently have about $48.7 million committed to 15 players.
- David Strehle: With the Sabres potentially willing to take on bad contracts for draft picks, it could be a big help to the Flyers.
- Andy Strickland: As many as five teams have talked to Jonas Hiller.
- Adam Vingan: Nicolas Deschamps, Peter LeBlanc and Brett Flemming didn’t receive qualifying offers from the Capitals, making them free agents.