On the trade market …
Chris Nichols: Pierre LeBrun on the trade market: “I think the month of June is going to be a complete gong show for the amount of news that’s going to be generated”
On the Detroit Red Wings …
Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Pavel Datsyuk was asked some questions with regards to Elliotte Friedman’s report that he could be returning to Russia after this season.
“I have one more year contract and we have three games left this year,” Datsyuk said today. “This is more focus for me now.
“I’m not looking at next year.”
Datsyuk has talked about returning to Russia in the past.
“From the beginning of my career … Russian fans, they help me, and I want to give back to them,” he said.
On the Colorado Avalanche …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Darren Dreger on TSN 1200 on the comments that Patrick Roy made towards Matt Duchene.
“The whole thing was a little bizarre and all it does is fuel and breed ongoing speculation, doesn’t it?
“You guys know because we did a show on this in November when we know that the Ottawa Senators had some discussion with Joe Sakic and the Avalanche about some trade interest, and Duchene’s name was brought up at that point. Now, it was brought up loosely, and there was never anything real connecting in terms of Ottawa’s interest or the interest from the Avalanche at that point in trading away that player.
“But now, all of the sudden, because the head coach has identified what might be perceived at least as a problem in the core of his team – well, guess what means. That means that the speculation is going to continue to build in the off-season, and this will be one of the storylines that we ponder and follow as part of our coverage at the draft.”