Saturday Night Headlines …
- Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman: Talked to Canucks president Trevor Linden, who said there is no doubt that head coach Willie Desjardins will be back next year.
- The league is looking at putting cameras in the crossbars, along the blueline on the penalty box side, and above the benches on the players side for the playoffs. At the GM meetings, they may talk about having the offices in Toronto look at the offsides as they have the bigger screens.
- The NHL may look at changing the draft age from 18 to 19. Not a guarantee that it would happen.
- Damien Cox: The Maple Leafs have sent Jared Cowen home and have told him they will be buying him out. They have given his agent permission to speak with teams about a free agent deal for when free agency starts on July 1st.
On the Boston Bruins …
- Mike Grinnell: Sources are telling Jimmy Murphy (who was talking about it on ESPNNH) that the Bruins and Lee Stempniak are discussing a contract extension.
On the Vancouver Canucks …
- Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province: Alex Burrow’s contract (one year left at $4.5 million) was not tradeable at the deadline. A buyout this offseason is possible. Burrow’s has been seeing fourth line action, and could be forced out of the lineup soon when Radim Vrbata and Jannik Hansen are healthy.
“I’ve had discussions with the coaching staff and they’ve stated to me that they’re going to be playing some young guys and I totally get that,” said Burrows, who has seven goals in 61 games this season. “It’s part of rebuilding and how they’re going to move forward. There’s nothing I can do — even if I have a great year — it’s the case that they’re trying to get young. I’m just enjoying it, to be in the lineup tonight and hopefully back the next night, but with Vrby back soon and Janny close, I could be the odd man out.”
On Milan Michalek …
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Milan Michalek didn’t original accept the request – that was 24 hours before the trade was announced – to waive his no-movement clause to be apart of the Dion Phaneuf trade to the Senators.
“It was the day before the trade. I said I’ve got to talk to my wife and my agent. We talked about it and we made a decision. We told them the next morning and the trade happened,” Michalek said.
Michalek didn’t see the point of remaining after the Senators asked.
“When a team says they don’t want you anymore, I wouldn’t want to stay there anymore and be on the outside and have everyone looking at me through their fingers. They’re building something good here,” said Michalek.
Michalek is hoping to make his Leafs debut on Monday, and Leafs are in Ottawa next Saturday.