- Craig Morgan of FOX Sports Arizona: Coyotes GM Don Maloney continues to have talks with Mikkel Boedker’s agent, but nothing to report. Maloney isn’t sure if anything substantive will happen before the end of the season. Boeker is finishing up a two-year, $5.1 million deal. He’ll be a RFA at the end of the year.
“I’m done thinking about that stuff,” Boedker said Friday. “It’s been two hard negotiations over the last two deals I’ve had so I’ve just learned to zone it out and not worry about it.
“I have to play on the contract I’m on right now and then we’ll see after the season, but obviously I want to be here and help us try and win a Stanley Cup. That’s why we all play the game.”
- John Vogl of the Buffalo News: Sabres Chris Stewart is entering the final year of his two-year, $8.3 million deal. It’s unclear if he’ll remain with the Sabres as they could look trade him. Stewart has a history of putting up good numbers during his contract year, and if he fits in well in their top-six, they could look to extend him.
- Mark Spector of SportsNet: Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has not completed a player-for-player trade in his three seasons as general manager.
“Trades that we’ve made have all (involved) draft picks and players going the other way. We brought in Michael Frolik (for third- and fifth-round draft choices), Devin Setoguchi (for a second). We traded some players to get draft picks … But as far as roster player for a roster player it hasn’t happened yet. And it hasn’t been by design.”
- Matthew Sekeres: Pierre McGuire saying that there are four teams with “significant interest” in Jacob Markstrom.
- Sam Carchidi: The Flyers may have to decide on either Scott Laughton and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare for a roster spot.
- Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960.
“I think Eric and Jordan really were determined after last year’s disappointment that they were going to lead this team to be better and I still think Eric is going to have a great year. But there’s no question it becomes so much harder now.
“Staal’s a horse, but you’re looking maybe at Lindholm, a 19-year-old, being your No. 2 center. In this league – obviously goaltending is so important – but when you’re thin at center, that’s the position where you really get exposed.
“I think that the Hurricanes – and one of the things I’m trying to look into is are they really going to go by committee as they said yesterday, or are they going to go out and try to add somebody. And I just wonder, when you have a young kid like Lindholm, if he’s not ready, do you do long term damage by putting him in the middle right away. So I think that’s a big question they’re going to have to answer over the next week or so.”