On the Vancouver Canucks …
Ed Willes: Canucks Trevor Linden on the report of a bridge contract for RFA Bo Horvat: “No, nothing at all to that. There is no bridge deal in place for Bo.”
Ed Willes in the Vancouver Province: Linden said that they are still hoping that they can get a new deal in place for Horvat before the start of training camp. He said the process is “ongoing.”
On the Colorado Avalanche …
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Darren Dreger was on WGR 550 talking about the Colorado Avalanche and Matt Duchene. Dreger notes that Duchene had hoped the situation had been resolved by now and is hopeful for before the start of training camp.
“Now, there’s been some suggestion – and certainly not from either side, this is just the time of year where rumors and such start to kind of circulate – that maybe Duchene wouldn’t show up for training camp if Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche didn’t move him. I’m not getting that from either side. I’m pretty confident in saying that I don’t believe that Pat Brisson has made that threat to Sakic and the Avalanche, but you do got to wonder if that’s the direction this thing could go in if Sakic doesn’t find a deal that makes sense to him to move Matt Duchene in the next couple of weeks.”
Dreger thinks that resolving this is back on the front burner and GM Joe Sakic is feeling some heat to get it done. There are still a handful of teams that are interested.
“They were looking for a left-shot, top defenseman as part of a package for Matt Duchene leading up to the draft. Just take a defenseman. There’s got to be a Top 4 or 5 guy that maybe Nashville or another team with interest is willing to part with.”