On the Nashville Predators …
Adam Vingan of The Tennessean: Five potential free agent fits for the Nashville Predators: Justin Williams, Nick Bonino, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Sam Gagner.
On the Philadelphia Flyers …
Dave Isaac: Once the Flyers signed forward Jordan Weal last night, it sounds like it removed any possibility of them signing Justin Williams tomorrow.
On the Washington Capitals …
CSN Mid Atlantic: The Capitals have little cap space to work with and won’t be big players in free agency. They could look at some cheaper options.
Jill Sorenson thinks that Chris VandeVelde could help out the PK and wouldn’t get much of raise from the $725,000 he made last year.
JJ Regan doesn’t think they should sign anyone, but for the sake of the discussion he mentions Nail Yakupov and if looking for some leadership lost from Justin Williams moving on, Chris Kunitz.
Tarik El-Bashir doesn’t think they should do anything either. El-Bashir gave a quick thought to Alex Chiasson, but moved on.
On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Penguins are looking for a backup goalie who is on a one-year deal and a defenseman.
“We’ll get another defenseman, I’m sure, over the next few days who fits what we do,” general manager Jim Rutherford said Friday afternoon at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
Elliotte Friendman linked Antti Niemi to the Penguins. Niemi’s agent declined to comment.
The Penguins could be looking to replace Nick Bonino through a trade, but don’t want to get stuck with a bad contract down the road.
“Based on where we’re at, with the amount of younger players that we have, with contracts that are going to be coming up, we have to be careful,” Rutherford said. “We don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we’re forced to move out good, young players.”