Should the Washington Capitals be looking for a top-six center?
Sammi Silber: Believe that the Washington Capitals needs to find a full-time top-six centerman for Alex Ovechkin.
“Not that Strome wasn’t arguably the MVP and not that McMichael/Lapierre didn’t hold their own, but a top, experience center would work wonders for the club IMO”
Sammi Silber: Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said that he’ll target a couple of areas this offseason but he’s also wanting to leave some room for his players to grow. He’ll look at the free agent and trade market.
NHL Rumors: Washington Capitals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins
The Ottawa Senators have interviewed Travis Green
Frank Seravalli: The Ottawa Senators have interviewed Travis Green for their head coaching. He is also a candidate for the New Jersey Devils position. The Devils are interviewing other candidates so they felt it was only fair to allow Green to interview elsewhere.
Seattle Kraken GM and a few players dispute the ESPN report over Dave Hakstol’s firing
Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times: Emily Kaplan of ESPN reported that some Seattle Kraken players during their exit interviews told GM Ron Francis that they didn’t want to play under head coach Dave Hakstol, who was fired on Monday.
GM Francis said on Wednesday that “not a single player” said that about Hakstol. Francis added that the players’ exit interviews had nothing to do with Hakstol’s firing.
Forwards Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann also didn’t think it was true adding “extremely disappointed” in the report (Eberle) and that it “left a bad taste in my mouth” (McCann).
“Zero players issued any ultimatums of any kind regarding the coach — that I can assure you,” Francis said. “That’s not what those meetings are really about. Usually, it’s us telling players what they have to do to prepare for next season, or how we thought they did this season. No one sits there asking them ‘What did you think of the coach?’ That’s not what these meetings are there for.”
Eberle noted that players may have differing opinions but no one had the ultimatum of it’s either Hakstol or them.
NHL Rumors: Are More Changes Coming to the Seattle Kraken this Offseason?
The Kraken have pending UFAs including Tomas Tatar, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Justin Schultz. RFAs include Matty Beniers, Eeli Tolvanen and Kailer Yamamoto.