- Adam Vingan of the Tennessean: The Predators and Mike Ribeiro’s agent have spoken twice and the past two weeks. Agent Don Meehan said that talks are in the preliminary stages.
“We haven’t taken it any further than that,” Meehan said during a phone interview Tuesday. “(Poile) has spoken about some of the issues that he’s facing in putting his team together for next year. We have talked about our expectations and objectives on behalf of (Ribeiro), and we haven’t taken it any further since then.”
“Our focus would be to be proactive with Nashville, for Mike to stay in Nashville,” Meehan said. “But that would all be conditional upon how Nashville reacts to that. If we have something that’s fair, then we’ll engage. If we don’t, then we have no choice but to go to free agency, but that’s not our priority. It’s not our first choice.”
The 35-year old is looking for a multi-year deal.
“One year would be unacceptable,” Meehan said. “We would want something longer than one year. We’ve indicated that to (Poile).”
- Mike Morreale of NHL.com: Coyotes GM Don Maloney is keeping his options open with their first round pick – third overall.
“There’s a couple of defensemen we really like, some centermen and some dynamic wingers, but we have all kinds of options,” Maloney said. “I’m not locked into anything. We do have holes to fill on our roster next season, so if we can fill a hole and get a relatively high pick in return, that’s an option.”
Maloney on Mitch Marner playing with Coyotes 2013 first round draft pick Max Domi.
“Mitch is a dynamic player, but we really don’t put a ton of stock because you just don’t know down the road,” Maloney said. “You have to assess players on their own merit, but Marner is a terrific talent. It’s unfortunate that he hurt his shoulder in the playoffs because it would have been interesting to see him against Erie had he remained healthy.
” is one of those smaller players (5-foot-11, 160 pounds), but like a Gaudreau has that special ability to create offense, and everyone is looking to find offense so he’d be a very good pick.”
- Rich Hammond: Kings GM Dean Lombardi said that he’s getting trade offers to move up and down in the first round.
