- Craig Custance of ESPN: Offseason priorities for the Ducks.
1. A long-term deal for Ryan Kesler – Kesler has a year left at $5 million, and his next deal won’t be as cap friendly. He’ll be 31-years old when his new deal would be in place. Could be a contract similar to Paul Stastny, four-years and $28 million.2. Re-sign Francois Beachemin – it’s a good fit for both sides. Beachemin is 34-years old and still has a couple good years left.
3. Trade James Wisniewski – they can’t afford to keep him around when he couldn’t even get into their lineup. He has a cap hit of $5.5 million, but his salary will drop to $3 million in 2016-17, the last year of the deal. Teams looking to get to the salary floor could be interested.
- Craig Custance of ESPN: Offseason priorities for the Rangers.
1. Long-term contract for Derek Stepan – He may prefer a five or six year deal. The Rangers also need to decide on Martin St. Louis. They could try for a bonus laden one year deal and worry about the cap consequences the following year.2. Explore a Cam Talbot trade – The Rangers don’t have a first round pick until 2017. Talbot will be a UFA after next season and they should get some picks for him while they can.
3. Promote Jeff Gorton – Sather should promote Gorton to GM befor he’s finally lured away to another team. Sather wouldn’t let teams talk to Gorton while they were in the playoffs, and may not at all.
- Ansar Khan of MLive: Red Wings GM Ken Holland will be talking trade with other GMs at the Draft Combine and will working to sign some of their RFA this week.
“Calls (from other GMs) are starting to come in,” Holland said. “Teams are kicking the tires, like we’re doing. Before they go into their (organizational) meetings they want to see what’s out there. If there’s a trade that makes us better we’ll look at it.”
Trades are more likely to happen around draft time. Teams like the Blackhawks and Bruins may have to move salary for prospects and/or picks.
They need some players to take the next step in their development.
“Let’s see what young players are ready to play full-time in Detroit,” Holland said. “Part of it (improvement) has to be internal, the development of these young players. Can we make a move that makes us a little better? That’s what we’ll explore over the next month.”
But, he added, “We tried to do some things in the last 2-3 years and in many cases our kids were better than the moves we made.
“Our kids are pretty good. We need them to continue to develop and get better.”
