The Vancouver Canucks will talk contract with two prospects
Rick Dhaliwal: There are some player agents that are willing to talk to teams about contracts while there are some others who are preferring to wait.
The Vancouver Canucks and 2018 draft pick Nils Hoglander’s camp will talk but it will take some time.
Rick Dhaliwal: The Canucks are able to sign Swedish forward Linus Karlsson but it’s looking like he won’t be heading to North America next season. Karlsson’s agent Marcus Isaksson:
“We will talk with VAN but it may be best to play 1 more year in Sweden.”
Seattle team name release postponed
Scott Charles of NBC Sports: According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, Seattle will be pushing back the release of the team name.
Seattle’s plan had been to release the name of the new franchise sometime in April, but that appears to be on hold for now.
Flat or lower salary cap ceiling won’t be easy for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Luke Fox of Sportsnet: There was recent talk of the projected salary cap for next season being in the $84 to $88.2 million range, but with the likely loss of the regular season, it could remain at $81.5 or possibly below that. The Toronto Maple Leafs are among the many teams that could struggle with this.
The Maple Leafs are expected to let Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci walk in free agency. Their blue line likely won’t be good enough to be contenders without adding in free agency or in a trade.
RFAs Ilya Mikheyev and defenceman Travis Dermott will be looking for a raise, tightening the Maple Leafs cap situation even further.
Don’t believe the Leafs are interested in breaking up their core group of William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, and John Tavares.
Trading one of Kasperi Kapanen ($3.2), Andreas Johnsson ($3.4 million) or Alexander Kerfoot ($3.5 million) would clear some salary cap space.