On the Toronto Maple Leafs …
Steve Simmons: As of Wednesday, it’s believed the Toronto Maple Leafs will be keeping their No. 30 and No. 31 picks, but they will have trade options.
On the Washington Capitals …
Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: The Capitals and RFA Marcus Johansson have already started contract discussions. Johansson’s agent, J.P. Barry spoke with Capitals GM Brian MacLellan at the Draft Combine.
“Does the team want to do a three-year deal, a four-year deal, a five-year deal? Then what does Marcus want?” Barry said. “That’s why we’re trying to find a term that everybody is comfortable with.”
Johansson was awarded $3.75 million in arbitration last offseason. He scored 17 goals and added 29 assists in 74 games last year.
On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
Jenn Menendez of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Penguins GM Jim Rutherford would love to keep both Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray, but the Penguins are likely considering trading Fleury.
“I have not met with Marc yet to see what he’s feeling,” Rutherford said. “I have not seen the expansion guidelines yet, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I’m going to say the obvious: It’s a great situation that we have good goalies, but it could be a tough situation going forward.”
If they have the salary cap space, Rutherford would like re-sign defenseman Ben Lovejoy. They might have to make some trades to create the cap space.
Matt Cullen hasn’t decided if he’ll retire or not, but Rutherford has let him know that he’d like to have him back.
They’d like to re-sign Justin Schultz, but they’d have to figure out a way to fit his salary in.
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: The Penguins will have to decide over the next couple weeks whether to trade Marc-Andre Fleury this offseason or not.
“Ideally, we’d like to start next year with both goalies, Fleury and Murray,” Rutherford said Friday morning. “But we have to look into some things. We have to, first of all, look into what the expansion guidelines are (if the Board of Governors votes yes next week), and talk internally as to how all this works, if both goalies are here.’’
Rutherford said that he met with Fleury this week, but didn’t go in depth with him about the situation.
The Calgary Flames are looking for a starting goalie. Ducks Frederik Andersen could also interest them as he’s only 26-years old.