On the Minnesota Wild and Marcus Foligno …
Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: After locking up RFAs Mikael Granlund and Nino Neiderrietter, the Minnesota Wild only have Marcus Foligno left to deal with.
Foligno’s agents have been dealing with six players who were scheduled for salary arbitration, so there hasn’t been much negotiation with the Wild.
Foligno’s camp and the Wild have exchanged three-year ideas, which would buy one-year of unrestricted free agency.
The Wild are hopeful that after they get Foligno re-signed, they will have enough salary cap space to add another free agent. They currently have about $4.7 million in cap space.
“We’ll get a deal done with Foligno and then see what we have left, and if it makes sense to bring somebody else in, we will,” Fletcher said.
On the Colorado Avalanche and Matt Duchene …
TSN: Matt Duchene was at Connor McDavid‘s camp in Toronto and was asked if he’s had an anxious summer with his name in the rumor mill.
“Yes and no,” Duchene said. “I think right now I’m pretty relaxed, I know whatever’s going to happen is gonna happen. I don’t really have control of it and I’m just worried about being at the top of my game and kind of getting to where I was kind of the first half of last season, before everything kind of fell apart everybody in Colorado. I feel good right now, probably as good as I felt at any point during the year.
“It is what it is and let it happen.“
TSN: Dave Poulin on Matt Duchene. Poulin notes that teams usually take the last couple weeks of July off, so things could start picking up a little. He adds that Duchene is a very good complementary player, a support player, but not a stand alone guy.
The Avs need to realize that and come to a different trade value for Duchene right now as they can’t find someone that would pay their price.
Poulin thinks that the Avs will end up moving him before training camp, but they need to change their price for him.