- Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli wouldn’t comment on contract negotiations involving Torey Krug and Reilly Smith. Chiarelli has all but said that he’ll be trading one of his nine defensemen.
“Around the fringes, guys have to go . . . I think they understand that we always want to ice a Cup-winning team, and with that comes some casualties. This year, I’m looking forward to it, to a certain degree; there’s a lot of competition, there’s a lot of spots, including — you don’t wish one of these (defensemen) to be traded, but we just have too many. At some point, I’m going to have to do it, and all the teams in the league, most of the teams in the league would like one.
“And I know everyone’s waiting, ‘What move will (he) make? What move will (he) make?’ Well, I have to see what’s going to happen, see who fits well with whom, but the uncertainty is something this year that is a byproduct of the cap and a successful team and locking up those guys, and eventually there’s other guys that are just going to get too expensive. I don’t cast any aspersions on them for being at that level, but that’s what it’s at.”
- Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago: Blackhawks Michal Rozsival is entering the final year of his deal that pays him $2.2 million. He would be a good candidate to help get them below the salary cap, but age and past injuries make it extremely difficult to find a taker and are likely to not get many call for him.
- Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area: Speculation will continue to surround Joe Thornton and the Sharks. If they had been able to move Thornton and/or Patrick Marleau this summer, the return they’d get back likely wouldn’t have been good enough to keep them in the running in the Western Conference. If they get off to a poor start, they may get a little more aggressive in trying to get Thornton to waive his no-trade clause.
- Bruce Garrioch: The Senators and Marc Methot’s camp talked yesterday, but no progress. Talks will continue.