On Alexander Radulov …
Aivis Kalnins: (from yesterday morning) Alexander Radulov’s KHL agent wasn’t able to comment on why Radulov wasn’t at the Team Russian camp as he didn’t even know where Radulov was.
On Dan Boyle …
Dan Rosen: Dan Boyle isn’t ready to announce that he’s going to retire, but he seems to be leaning that way.
On the Minnesota Wild …
Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press: GM Chuck Fletcher was given a vote of confidence. Interim coach John Torchetti is unlikely to return. The Wild need an experienced coach who will command the room – a Randy Carlyle or Ken Hitchcock if he gets fired. Fletcher will have some trouble making changes to his roster as many players have big salaries and no-trade clauses.
On the Boston Bruins …
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney will be looking to upgrade their blueline this offseason.
“Trades in general are a challenge,” he said. ” going to have to find a trading partner to get good players. You can’t just start giving up good players or younger players or future assets in the form of draft picks, as everybody knows. But the calls will be made to try and establish that. I look at our overall defense and the new player integration and what their expectations will be going forward.”
Cam Neely on upgrading their defense this offseason.
“I don’t have any concerns about work ethic to try and improve the club over the offseason,” he said. “We know what our back end is all about, so we need to find, if we can . . . we need to really improve that area of our team. We’ve got a lot of good young forward prospects up and coming. Whether they make an impact this year or not remains to be seen, but our back end is something that I know is going to be very focused on.”
Pending RFAs that might become available due to their contract demands include Jacob Trouba, Matthew Dumba or Sami Vatanen.
Other defensemen who are at least under contract next year that might be available for trade include Jonas Brodin and Kevin Shattenkirk.
The Bruins would have to give up good assets to land any of the above defensemen as they won’t come cheap.