Round two of interviews for Penguins GM position happening soon
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman said that Pittsburgh Penguins are getting closer to starting their second round of GM interviews.
“As far as I can tell, I believe there’s been eight individuals who have been interviewed so far,” Friedman said. “From Patrik Allvin, who’s currently in there alphabetically through Kevin Weekes of the NHL Network.”
Their list includes Allvin, Weekes, John Ferguson Jr., Michael Futa, Ron Hextall, Mark Hunter, Jason Karmanos and Chris MacFarland.
It’s possible that more people are interviewed, but they want to trim their initial list.
John Shannon: The Penguins are also open to restructuring their front office a bit. Have been hearing that they would consider hiring a President of Hockey Operations as well as a general manager.
Role and ice time may be more important to Danault than money
Stu Cowen of the Montreal Gazette: Montreal Canadiens forward Phillip Danault is in the last year of his deal and said that he’d love to finish his career as a Canadien.
Reports have the 27-year old turning down a six-year, $30 million deal this past offseason. On Friday he didn’t want to talk about his contract situation.
Turning down that deal may be more about his role and ice time with the Canadiens and not about the money.
“At the beginning (of this season) everything changed as soon as I came here … contract-wise, everything,” Danault said. “So all the stuff that was going around it was definitely an adaptation on my game and mentally. Those things, too, I don’t want the team to get affected, so that’s why I don’t talk about it.
“I needed some time to adapt,” he added. “There are a lot of things that changed at the same time, whether it was my ice time or the way I was being used on the penalty-kill. I’m still playing with the same linemates, though. We try to give everything we have every night. I’m ready to do everything I can to help the team win. It’s going really well right now and we’ll keep on going that way.”