Early Predications …
Darren Dreger: Not for sure, but early predictions are: Milan Lucic to the Edmonton Oilers, Frans Nielsen to the Detroit Red Wings, Andrew Ladd to the New York Islanders and Loui Eriksson to the Vancouver Canucks.
Bob McKenzie: Speculating where players will sign – Lucic in Edmonton, Nielsen in Detroit, Ladd with the Islanders, Eriksson in Vancouver and Troy Brouwer in Calgary.
On the Nashville Predators …
General Fanager: The Nashville Predators won’t honor P.K. Subban’s no-movement clause. It was their choice not to honor it or not.
On the Columbus Blue Jackets …
Aaron Portzline: Columbus Blue Jackets fans shouldn’t expect a lot of action today in free agency, should be a quiet day.
On the Boston Bruins …
DJ Bean of WEEI: The Bruins decided to buyout Dennis Seidenberg.
“I would have considered all options from that standpoint,” Don Sweeney said on a conference call Thursday. “I mean, they’re all at our disposal. If it had come to any of those situations, we probably would have been able to approach Dennis with his contract situation and no-trade and explored those things. This was the opportunity. We pushed it right down to the last minute and this was the decision we made, albeit a very difficult one.”
Source confirmed the Bruins never approached Seidenberg about waiving it. There may not have been any teams interested in taking on his contract.
DJ Bean: It means nobody was interested in Seidenberg or they didn’t want to retain any salary or do what the Blackhawks did with Bryan Bickell.
Amalie Benjamin: GM Sweeney said they’ve had productive talks with John-Michael Liles.
On the Calgary Flames …
Kristen Odland of the Calgary Hearld: Will likely cost the Flames between $12 and $14 million to re-sign both Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau. After the buy out of Mason Raymond and the eventual LTIR of Ladislav Smid, they’ll have some room for free agency.
Five potential targets for the Flames: Troy Brouwer, Carter Hutton, Matt Martin, Darcy Kuemper and Joe Colborne.