- NHL Numbers: Remaining unsigned RFAs: Micheal Ferland (CGY), Marcus Kruger (CHI), Stefan Elliott and Freddie Hamilton (COL), Jonathan Huberdeau (FLA), Brock Nelson (NYI) and John Albert (WPG).
- George Richards: Talk is that the Panthers and Jonathan Huberdeau have agreed on the term for a new contract, but talk on the dollar amount continues. The sides talked yesterday.
- Alex Prewitt of the Washington Post: Capitals Nicklas Backstrom was back on the ice yesterday with teammates and their strength coach.
“I’m feeling a lot better,” Backstrom said later, after leaving the ice while strength coach Mark Nemish ran the other Capitals through timed skating sprints. “I’m happy I can skate right now and happy to be back, but it’s a process and it’s really hard to tell, the timeline around the hip. We’ll see. We’ll take it day by day.”
Backstrom won’t return before he’s 100 percent healthy.
“It’s obviously not fun to not know, but on the other hand, I’m not in a rush,” he said. “I’m going to be back to 100 percent before I start playing. I’m not going to play on 90 percent. We’ll see how it goes. We don’t know yet.”
- Kristen Odland of the Calgary Herald: The Flames have three goalies on one-way contracts – Jonas Hiller, Joni Ortio and Karri Ramo. Ramo doesn’t appear to be to concerned.
“I’m sure the guys upstairs have their plan,” Ramo said. “I’m sure there’s a plan what they’re going to do and I don’t think at the end of the day, it’s going to be that hard of a decision for them.
“I’m sure when they signed me, even when the season ended, they saw how things were going to play out.”
- Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun: The Flames defense play a run-and-gun style, and with the offseason addition of Dougie Hamilton, the Flames will have some decisions on their pairings.
“I know every day at camp we’re going to put out Dougie Hamilton and one defenceman, and the question will be whether that’s his pairing partner. We’re going to experience every possible way because I think that we added talent and natural depth and what that depth will do for us is help us distribute the icetime in a better way.
“When we throw a defenceman on the ice, he will be 100% rested because part of our style is go, go, go.”
- Ryan Kennedy: Sources saying that William Nylander’s brother Alexander (2016 draft eligible) will be joining Mississauga (OHL) for this season. Juha Hiitela: Sources saying that Nylander’s dad will be joining their coaching staff.