On the Chicago Blackhawks ….
Scott Powers: Coach Joel Quenneville said they could consider a 10 game option for winger Alexandre Fortin.
Scott Powers: Coach Quenneville said that they will likely carry eight defenseman to start the season. If Gustav Forsling remains with the Blackhawks, he’ll be playing.
Scott Powers: Forsling’s agent said that his contract won’t slide this season even if the Blackhawks assigned him back to Sweden. They previously thought it would.
On the Philadelphia Flyers …
Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post: Scott Laughton will be out for three weeks and defenseman Brandon Manning is out at least a week with an upper-body injury.
“We have to look at all our options,” Hextall said. “One might affect the other like dominoes. Player X you might have to do something you don’t want to do because of the cap. The roster now is not an issue. The cap is.”
Teams have until 5:00 pm on October 11th to get under the $73 million salary cap.
Ivan Provorov looks to be a lock to make the Flyers. Travis Konecny is still battling for a spot.
Flyers GM Ron Hextall said they don’t want to start the season with anyone on the LTIR.
“We’re probably gonna have to do something we don’t want to do anyway, is kind of the way I look at it,” Hextall said. “We’ve got a pretty good battle going here and I give everybody credit. Everybody’s in it.”
On the Anaheim Ducks …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 1040 on Anaheim Ducks RFAs Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm.
McKenzie thinks there has been some progress with regards to Rakell’s contract and that he thought a deal was close to be being done. Not there just yet.
Lindholm and the Ducks have made some progress, but there is still a gap.
“Lindholm I think closed what was a pretty considerable gap, but that’s not to suggest that the gap’s still not considerable – if that makes any sense. Other than, I mean, if you were a million – and I’m not saying they are, I’m just using these numbers as an example – but if you were $1.5 million apart and now you’re only $800,000 or $1million apart, you’re much closer than you were. But you’re still a long way from a deal. Especially when you’re talking about six years, which I believe they are. They want long-term deals for both guys.”
The Ducks may have to move out some salary to fit Rakell’s and Lindholm’s contacts in. There has been Cam Fowler rumors and if he’ll be with the Ducks long-term.