- Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington: Capitals RFA Marcus Johansson will be looking for a big raise from his $2 million salary. He is three years away from being a UFA and the Capitals need to qualify him at 100 percent of his contract. He usually leaves coaches and management wanting more, which will likely be why he’ll get a one- or two-year deal.
“I’d like to stay, I like it here,” Johansson said. “I think we’ve really got something good going here. There are a lot of guys up for contracts and all that, but the core of this team is really strong and everybody’s buying in and doing the right things right now. I want to be part of this and I want to be part of this team winning because I really think that’s going to happen.”
- Chris Johnston: After spending four years in Russia, Andrei Kostitsyn wants to return to the NHL. It is thought that there has been some preliminary talks on a one-year deal.
- Aaron Portzline: The Blue Jackets retain the rights of Peter Quenneville until June 1st, 2017. Their only decision on unsigned draft picks is whether to sign Seth Ambroz or not.
- Michael Smith of Hurricanes.NHL: (mailbag) The Hurricanes have seven UFAs and 10 RFAs. Smith thinks that only three of the pending UFAs will return and they may only qualify five of their RFAs. UFAs include: Patrick Dwyer, Chris Terry, Brett Bellemore, Jack Hillen, Ben Holmstrom, Greg Nemisz and Drew MacIntyre.
- Platinum Seat Ghosts: Darren Dreger on TSN Radio on what money category pending UFA Matt Beleskey is in: “I’m guessing. Pat Brisson and CAA sports are the group that represent Matt Beleskey, the same group that represents Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and go down the list, Evgeni Malkin, the star Sidney Crosby. Ahhh… An educated guess? I’m gonna say in the $5 million range. Y’know, high fours. It’ll depend on term of course …. When you think he’s slipping into the cracks, he does what he did night and the game before.”
- Sportsnet 590: Doug MacLean on Matt Beleskey: “He’s had a great year, he’s a battler…. he’d be a good pick up for the #Leafs”
- Brendan Savage of MLive: The emergence of Petr Mrazek will mean the end of Jonas Gustavsson as a Red Wing, despite his desire to return.
“I haven’t looked at the market yet,” Gustavsson said when the Red Wings cleaned out their lockers after a seven-game loss to the Lightning. “You can’t really look at it now because if I look now it’s going to look like there’s some openings on some teams and then there’s some trades and those spots are filled and there’s other spots somewhere else, so you never know.
“Hopefully my body’s a little bit good to me and we’ll see. Right now I don’t really know much, probably won’t know much in the near future either.”