- Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The Rangers and Marc Staal continue to talk, with Staal’s agent Paul Krepelka saying “we’ve made some progress.” A deal is not imminent though as there is some work to do.
“I’m not giving daily updates, not getting into ‘close or not close,’ ’’ Krepelka said. “The tenor of the talks has been good, so we’ll keep going and keep working on it. There’s certainly no deadline on our part for getting this done.
“If this becomes a distraction at any time for Marc, then we’d have to take another look at it. But it’s all been positive to this point.”
- Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun: The Senators and Marc Methot are just $300,000 apart on a long-term contract extension, but Methot is a still a little concerned and may be feeling like he could be dealt.
“It’s at the stage where I’m really not comfortable that the team wants to do anything (on a new deal),” a disappointed Methot told the Sun Tuesday.
Senators GM Bryan Murray recently told Bob McKenzie that he’d rather trade Methot than lose him for nothing to free agency. Methot’s agent Larry Kelly:
“That’s a surprising comment,” Kelly told the Sun. “His last offer was 4.7 (million) over five years, starting at 4.5, and our last offer was 5 (million) AAV (average annual salary), over five years, starting at 4.5.”
Kelly also presented the option of making it a six year deal with the same cap number.
“The average person will still look at that and go ‘are you kidding me?’,” said Methot. “But we’ve already conceded (dollars), over and over again.”
There are unconfirmed rumors that Bobby Ryan turned down a seven-year, $49 million offer.
- Hope Smoke: Darren Dreger: “The belief is, if that player is a game changer or a valued member of an org the team is going to match, so it’s a wasted effort” … “I don’t say it happens every time that a player is about to get an OS that GM calls to try & trade for the player, but it happens” … “There has to be some level of decorum between these teams.” … “I know for a fact that some teams have made trade offers for Johansen leading all the way back to the draft.” … “This contract impasse hasn’t caught anyone off guard & teams are paying very close attention” … “but you’re talking about a quality centre iceman. A game changer. They’re Really hard to find.” … “I couldn’t imagine Columbus not matching any offer sheet that would come that way.”