- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: Jagr still hasn’t made a decision, and doesn’t know how long it will take. He said great things about Pittsburgh and Detroit.
- Will DePaoli via twitter: DePaoli hears it’s unlikely that the Penguins would go above $2 million a year for Jagr. Though they are intrigued with Jagr, they are not going to tie up cap space for a 39 year old at the expense of Kennedy and others. Though talks with Kennedy aren’t going well. DePaoli senses that Jagr’s first choice is Pittsburgh, Detroit doing a good sell job.
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: The Dallas Stars are still attempting to move Brad Richards rights,
“We continue to chip away here,” Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “Our intention is to move his rights and hope to do that prior to the draft here.”
Nieuwendyk wouldn’t give up much, but they may have an offer for Richards. They would have to convince Richards to waive his no-movement clause. The Stars would like to bring Jamie Langenbrunner back, but only a reasonable price. The Predators and Shea Weber continue to work on a new deal. They offered him salary arbitration, so no other team can give him an offer sheet. There hasn’t been any talks between Josh Gorges and the Montreal Canadiens. The Lightning and UFA Sean Bergenheim are not close.
- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Coyotes GM Don Maloney is making a list of his goalie options.
“There are several different options that we’re exploring, from young up-and-comers that are going to cost assets to acquire, to searching the UFA market to see who might be the right fit for us, to talking to some NHL teams,” Maloney told ESPN.com. “There’s three or four goaltenders that we might have interest in where the team in question might want to make a change. So really, the factors we’re looking at are acquisition cost, contract term, contract amount and age of the player.
“That’s all being evaluated and discussed. At some point, we’ll make a decision; at some point, we will have a goalie here. We’re just not there yet in regards to which way we want to go here.”
Goalies on his list could be free agents Tomas Vokoun, Jose Theodore, Marty Turco, JS Giguere, Ty Conklin, Mike Smith, Pascal Leclaire, Ray Emery, and Brian Boucher. On the trade side of things, Jonathan Bernier, Cory Schneider or Evgeni Nabokov. They are not close to signing any of their free agents which includes: UFAs Ed Jovanovski, Radim Vrbata, Vern Fiddler, and Eric Belanger, as well as RFAs Keith Yandle, Kyle Turris, Mikkel Boedker and Lauri Korpikoski.
- Dan Tencer via twitter: Oilers GM Tambellini said there has been some new trade talk regarding Sheldon Souray. A return to Edmonton is “not a likely scenario.”
- Andy Strickland via twitter: The Blues are looking to make a deal to improve their roster. Anybody is likely available except Pietrangelo, Stewart, Backes, and Berglund.
- Ryan Kennedy via twitter: 2 sources have told Kennedy that the Oilers could be looking to trade down from the 1st overall pick, with Florida a likely trade partner. Adrian Dater via twitter: Hearing chatter that Oilers and Panthers talking about swapping picks.
- Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel: The Panthers are interested in drafting a center and would like to get there hands on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins if available, followed by Jonathan Huberdeau.
- Adrian Dater of the Denver Post: Dater thinks the Avalanche could draft Huberdeau at #2. Tomas Fleischmann still hasn’t been medically cleared, and the Avs haven’t said anything regarding his UFA status. Peter Mueller will be in training camp.
- Katie Strang of Newsday: The NY Islanders will draft the best player available at #5. GM Garth Snow,
“You don’t always know how it’s going to unfold,” Snow told Newsday in a recent telephone interview. “If there is an opportunity to trade up or down, we’d be open to anything like that.”