- Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News: Sharks Joe Thornton has had separate conversations with GM Doug Wilson and owner Hasso Plattner after his “keep his mouth shut” and “stop lying” comments.
“I talked with Hasso and Doug,” Thornton said, “and they don’t have a problem with me.”
Thornton obviously wouldn’t get into details of what was discussed.
“Joe and I talked last night,” Wilson said. “I appreciate Joe reaching out to me. We had a great talk. Everything is in a very good place.”
Pierre LeBrun: “Reality with Sharks is that despite all their efforts, it was too tall a task to completely heal the wounds from last spring. This stuff has simmered all year long… Obviously will be interesting to see how off-season unfolds… to say the least.”
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: The Flyers could drop as low as the 6th overall, which would give them a 7.5 percent chance to win the lottery. They will also have the Lightning’s first round pick. Flyers GM Ron Hextall has noted that this draft is forward heavy, which should be good for them. They have four good defensive prospects, but if they have a Dman rated higher when they pick, they won’t hesitate to draft him. For their own pick, it could be around eighth overall, and some intriguing forwards that could be available include: Mikko Rantanen, Pavel Zacha, Mitchell Marner, Timo Meier, Kyle Connor, Brock Boeser and Lawson Crouse. The Tampa Bay pick could be in the 22 to 30 range. Forwards that could be available in that range could include: Jake Debrusk, Paul Bittner, Travis Konecny, Colin White, Filip Chlapik and Daniel Sprong.
- Eric Bowser of Pensburgh: Kovacevic wrote on his site DK on Pittsburgh Sports back on March 6th about the recently traded Simon Despres. Despres was sent to the Ducks for Ben Lovejoy.
“They don’t trust Despres off the ice and, hence, lost trust on it”, “And when that inconsistency is something they believe is rooted in a general lack of applying one’s self in life, that’s when it becomes too much to take”, and “And no, I will not get specific on this. Sorry. Other than to say the Penguins got sick and tired of betting on his future.”
Despres’ agent, Chris Daigle, in an interview with Pensburgh.
“I’m surprised. I never got a phone call. That’s our job, our role. If it was that big of an issue, why didn’t the team call?”
Daigle said “Teams always call us about issues, I don’t think there’s an issue and no one called me. I know Simon really well, he was happy this year, liked his teammates, and he has good values. He’s very serious about his job, he would work out in the gym everyday and on the ice.”
- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: The Wild play the Blues a couple more times this season, and Chris Stewart is still a little bothered about the Blues trading him last season.
“Anytime you get traded in this league, I think you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder and want to stick it to them every time you play them,” Stewart said. “There’s no other way to take it than personal.”
