- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Lightning GM Steve Yzerman said earlier this offseason that his No. 1 priority was to sign Steven Stamkos to contract extension. Training camp is only two weeks away and an extension doesn’t appear close. If talks drag into the season, it will become a distraction. But, it’s not time to panic yet. The Lightning know that Stamkos is deserving to be one of the highest paid players in the NHL, but it’s not an easy deal. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews signed eight-year, $84 million deals last year, but the market has changed since then as the cap didn’t go up as much as expected, the Canadian dollar is dropping, and there is uncertainty on future salary caps.
“It’s really difficult right now to plan with this cap crunch,” said NHL Network analyst Craig Button, a former Flames general manager.
The Lightning also need to think about Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman and others who will need new contracts in the next two years.
Deals this massive are complicated, with a lot of variables at play. They take time, considerable negotations, with give and take by both sides. The Kings are in a similar situation with Anze Kopitar, a star entering the final year of his deal; in that case, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi told LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen that they’re “not even in the same ballpark” in discussions.
It’s not known what the gap is for Stamkos and the Lightning, with neither side wanting to comment on the negotiations.
- Ken Campbell of The Hockey News: Campbell looks at what is holding up Steven Stamkos and Anze Kopitar contract extensions. When Toews and Kane signed their contract extensions last year, the Canadian dollar was at 94 cents compared to the U.S. dollar. Now it’s dropped 20 percent and is around 76 cents (as of a few days ago). Campbell:
And it’s creating as much uncertainty for GMs as it is for economists. You have no idea where the Canadian dollar is going and, therefore, what’s going to happen to revenues. The league expects revenues to continue to grow from a standpoint of dollars spent, but that growth could be severely curtailed, or even perhaps wiped out, by a less valuable Canadian dollar. So let’s say Yzerman signs Stamkos to a deal similar to the one inked by Toews and Kane. He also has to sign Alex Killorn, J.T. Brown, Nikita Kucherov and Cedric Paquette as restricted free agents in the summer of 2016 and then faces a murderers’ row of signings the next summer with Victor Hedman, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson all coming up for contract renewals.
- Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun: Flames RFA Micheal Ferland is still looking for a contract. GM Brad Treliving on contract talks.
“Just money and term, that’s all,” GM Brad Treliving said of what’s holding up a contract. “We’ll bang away. We haven’t been able to find something that both sides nod on yet, but we’ve still got some time.”
Defenseman Ladislav Smid is progressing after having neck surgery last February, but he might not be ready for contact at training camp.