On the Minnesota Wild …
Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: The Sabres and Red Wings missed out on Steven Stamkos and may now look free agent winger Kyle Okposo. The Wild are among the teams are interested in Okposo.
Okposo could get at least six year and likely in the $6 million per year range.
The Wild have also spoken with David Backes.
The Wild are looking for a center and/or a right winger.
It’s not known for sure if the Wild offered the Oilers Matt Dumba for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nugent-Hopkins for Jonas Brodin makes more sense.
Another center option could be Derek Stepan – $6.5 million through 2021.
Eric Staal‘s agent Rick Curran:
“There’s mutual interest and consideration that there is a fit with Minnesota. We’ve had conversation and I would also suggest Eric was extremely impressed.”
Other options down the middle include Darren Helm and Sam Gagner.
Free agent right wing options include: Mikkel Boedker, Shane Doan, Troy Brouwer Joe Colborne, and Chris Stewart. Don’t get the sense that the Wild are interested in David Perron.
On the Ottawa Senators …
Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen: Don’t expect the Senators to be big players in free agency when it kicks off tomorrow. Senators GM Pierre Dorion.
“We have to be careful,” Dorion said, while watching the club’s prospects go through practice drills at development camp.
“On July 1, sometimes we do things that we end up regretting and we’re not going to do that. I don’t think it will be a very busy July 1 for us.”
The Senators could wait for the second- and third-tier free agents for their third/fourth line and fifth/sixth defenseman.
The Sens will likely look at Darren Helm. They could also look to make a trade later this offseason.
“My mindset right now is that having free agency during development camp might not be the best thing,” Dorion said. “You see a lot of your kids and you see where you think they’ll be in a couple of months when the season starts and we say to ourselves, is it worth signing a veteran guy when you know a kid, within a month, could be as good as them?”