On Kyle Okposo …
Arthur Staple: Don’t rule out the Sabres and Panthers on UFA Kyle Okposo.
On the Los Angeles Kings …
John Hoven: Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Tannetti: “We tried to move up when two guys fell. It was a complete non-starter. Nobody wanted to move. Whole draft was that way.” … “We had zero ability to move up or down w/ our picks this year… People just weren’t interested… there was a hesitancy to move”
On the Montreal Canadiens …
Habs Links: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 in the Montreal Canadiens: “Based on my information, the priority of the Montreal Canadiens (this summer) is to upgrade the blueline.”
Habs Links: McKenzie expects the Canadiens to try and trade defenseman Alexei Emelin when his no-movement clause expires on July 1st.
Habs Links: Tony Marinaro on TSN 690: “Multiple sources confirmed the player the Habs tried hardest to move at the trade deadline was David Desharnais”
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 on conversation of Steven Stamkos and how teams have to be careful of large contracts and how they can impact teams that have young players they need to re-sign.
“That’s exactly why all of the Subban nonsense surfaced this week. Right? And all of that speculation was developed, in my opinion, by the Canadiens organization. Why? Because Bergevin, in some respect, is in cap jail. No different than Stan Bowman and all of the cap-spending teams. He’s got a $9 million player –who is a hell of a player in P.K. Subban – but he’s got Carey Price coming around the corner, and the vault is open. Name your price. So if you want to get back into a contending status between now and that contract of Carey Price, what do you do? You throw the big fish into the pond and hope that somebody takes the bait, and it just didn’t happen.”