- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: The biggest hurdle with regards to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Steven Stamkos is the expected salary cap hit in the $10.5 million range. GM Steve Yzerman, agent Don Meehan or Stamkos are not talking about it.A couple sources are there might be some other things that are in play.
1. Stamkos prefers playing center, with the Lighting preferring Stamkos on the wing with Valtteri Filppula and Tyler Johnson down the middle.
2. Looking into the teams future, by the end of 2016-17, they’ll have to make long-term decisions on Ben Bishop, Victor Hedman, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Stamkos.
There was a rumor two weeks ago that there were trade talks before the draft that involved Stamkos. Friedman’s digging leads him to believe it didn’t get close. Some think Yzerman tested the market in case he would need to do something in the future. Some think the Buffalo Sabres might have been a team involved. Friedman has no evidence that anything involved the Toronto Maple Leafs.
There is nothing indicating that Stamkos wants to be traded.
- Scott Powers of ESPN: RFA Marcus Kruger still remains optimistic a deal can be reached with the Chicago Blackhawks before the start of training camp according to a source. The Blackhawks have about $70.4 million in cap space committed to 21 players.
- Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News: Rangers Ryan McDonagh didn’t require offseason surgery for his broken foot, and he’s not experiencing any discomfort or restrictions.
“It’s good. It feels pretty much normal now,” McDonagh, 26, said on Court 12 of the U.S. Open at a Labor Day event to promote multi-sport childhood participation for kids. “I’m not even really thinking about (the foot) on a daily basis, so it’s nice. It doesn’t get sore after skates and I’m able to do everything I want to do in the weight room training wise, so hopefully in that way it’s in the past now.”
- Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun: Part 3 of Mike Babcock’s sit down with the Sun. Babcock on if he’s patient enough for a rebuild.
“What we’re going to do is have a winning process every single day,” he said. “We’re going to prepare to win.
“Believe me, I’m about winning. But I’m a process oriented guy and when you focus on that the wins take care of themselves. And if there aren’t as many wins as you’d like, we’re going to continue on and find a different way.
“But one thing I want to make clear – you’re asking me a question about what people on the outside might think. I don’t worry about that. I know what I think, I know what my family thinks, I know what Lou thinks, I know what Shanny thinks… that’s it.”