- Arthur Staple: There is no truth to the talk of recent contract extension talks between the Islanders and Kyle Okposo. It has been quiet for most of the summer.
- Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal: Oilers coach Todd McLellan on Bob Stauffer’s Oilers Now radio show on if Leon Draisaitl could see time at center and on the wing during preseason.
I look at Leon Draisiatl, and in my opinion Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid are going to be #1 and #2 centremen in our organization for a long, long time, they’re that talented and that good. Not that Leon isn’t… But career-wise, he might love to be on one of their wings and playing in the top six rather than maybe being that third-line centre. I think it’s really unfair to peg him there, but we have to look at it from that perspective. responsibilities as a winger are somewhat less, his boardwork is quite good, and one of the things that impressed me the most about Leon is his ability to play on his backhand. Joe Thornton has incredible eyes and makes incredible passes on his backhand. For a young man like Leon, he did the exact same thing at our summer development camp, which is something I wasn’t aware of.
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: The Devils should have an update on Ryane Clowe as early as next week
“Obviously, training camp is upcoming. We’re going to have to have something,” Devils general manager Ray Shero said today. “We’ll get through the weekend and see. I know Ryane is back in town because his daughter is starting school next week. So, we’ll see what next week brings us and before training camp starts on the 17th, we’ll have some sort of information. We have to.”
There doesn’t appear to be any intention of Clowe being at camp. Whether he decides to retire or continue to leave the door open remains to be seen.
“We’ll have a little bit more conversation next week and more than that is hard to say until we have more information from the doctors and Ryane,” Shero said. “So, we’ll be on that again next week. At some point, we’ll have something to say and some sort of update, for sure.”
- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Tribune: Lightning’s Tyler Johnson is expected to be ready for the start of training camp after he broke his wrist in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.
“It’s a slow healing injury, but throughout the summer it’s progressing fine,” Yzerman said. “We hope he’ll be ready to go.”
- Jeff Neiberg of the Philadelphia Daily News: Flyers GM Ron Hextall on their blueline prospects.
“In a perfect world, your kids all go either back to juniors or minors, and when they come to this level they are ready to stay at this level for the rest of their career,” Hextall said. “That’s a perfect world.”
Hextall said the Flyers currently have $583,000 in salary cap space.
