- Scott Lewis of Sportsnet: Five potential destinations for Maple Leafs Cody Franson and potential trade chips.1. Dallas Stars – Jason Dickinson, Radek Faksa, Jyrki Jokipakka, Patrik Nemeth, Brenden Ranford, Brett Ritchie, Devin Shore.
2. LA Kings – Nick Ebert, Derek Forbort, Adrian Kempe, Michael Mersch, Tanner Pearson.
3. Anaheim Ducks – Nicolas Kerdiles, Rickard Rakell, Nick Ritchie, Devante Smith-Pelly, Nick Sorensen
4. Detroit Red Wings – Tomas Jurco, Dylan Larkin, Xaveir Ouellet, Teemu Pulkkinen, Ryan Sproul.
5. San Jose Sharks – Gabryel Boudreau, Taylor Doherty, Nikolay Goldobin, Matthew Nieto, Matt Tennyson, Chris Tierney.
- The Fourth Period: The Flyers are still willing to eat some of Vincent Lecavalier’s salary, but haven’t been able to come up with a deal yet. He has three years left at a $4.5 million salary cap hit. His salary is $6 million this year, but drops down to $4.5 million next year and $3 million in the final two years. The Flyers are looking at other trade options as the deadline approaches. GM Ron Hextall is wanting to make a ‘talent-for-talent’ type trade. The Flyers have made Brayden Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann and Braydon Coburn available.
- Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News: According to sources, the Flyers have held preliminary talks with pending free agent defenseman Nick Schultz. Nothing appears imminent. The Flyers haven’t held talks with pending RFA defenseman Michael Del Zotto. He needs a qualifying offer of $1.3 million to retain his rights. He is arbitration eligible.
- Helene St. James of the LA Times: Kings GM Dean Lombardi has a number of key restricted and unrestricted free agents to deal with before next season. Lombardi on the uncertainty of next years salary cap.
“It’s a matter of how all these pieces fit into the puzzle,” Lombardi said Tuesday, after the Kings prepared for their game against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center. “Then we also have this whole thing with the Canadian dollar. I’ve been talking to other GMs about that. It’s a crazy way to run a cap. Do I need a stat guy or do I need a currency trader to figure this out?”
Lombardi and their cap expert, Jeff Solomon, have talked to the agents of their free agents, but won’t get too far into talks until they get a better idea of next year’s cap. With regards to their cap number for this year, they are waiting to see how Mike Richards does in the AHL, as well as waiting for Slava Voynov’s case to be resolved. His trail is on March 2nd.
“We’re putting out feelers to a number of guys and trying to make all the pieces fit,” Lombardi said.