- Elliotte Pap of the Vancouver Sun: Canucks Shawn Matthias will be a UFA and he isn’t stressing about it. The 27-year old is coming off an 18 goal season where he made $1.85 million.
“The team has a lot of decisions to make,” said Matthias, who joined the Canucks March 4, 2014 as part of the Roberto Luongo deal with Florida. “There are lots of guys under contract and stuff. I’m not going to worry about it. I’m not going to hold my breath. I do really enjoy playing here. I respect all the guys and management.
“I would love to be back but, in the business side of things, you never know what could happen. It’s a salary cap world. I mean, if I go to July 1st, I’m going to do what’s best for myself. So we’ll see what happens.”
The 30-year old Brad Richardson made $1.15 million this past season and battled an ankle injury. On his pending free agency.
“I don’t know if I can dwell on that or not,” he said. “I think I had a pretty good first half. There is only so much you can do. An injury like this is tough. What do you do? So I’m going to be positive. I think I’ve done a good job and whatever happens, happens.”
- Thomas Drance: Brad Richardson expects his reps to speak with the Canucks. Focusing on his upcoming surgery and rehab.
- News 1130 Sports: Free agent goaltender Matt O’Connor loved his time in Vancouver. He liked the plan the Canucks had for his development. A decision is likely coming this Friday or Saturday, with the big time in the mix.
- Paul of Kukla’s Korner: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 on that the Penguins should at least consider trading Evgeni Malkin.
“If you can get two or three pieces including a guy that can play with Crosby, don’t you have to think about it? At what point do you say yeah, we won the Stanley Cup, but that was six years ago? These two guys together make $18.2 million, and we keep losing in the playoffs because we don’t have enough support pieces.
“There are teams that could pull it off. I’m looking at a Florida, a Nashville, a team with young assets that could do this. I’m not saying if you’re the Penguins you should do it 100 per cent, but I’m saying you really have to sit down and think about it.”
Friedman adds the Flames could be in a position to look at a trade if both sides were interested.
- Sam Carchidi: Flyers GM Ron Hextall said he hopes they can get a coach in place before the draft.
- CSN Bay Area: Top 13 head coaching candidates for the Sharks: Dan Bylsma, Peter DeBoer, Dave Tippett, Ken Hitchcock, Jeff Blashill, Paul MacLean, Tony Granato, Ron Sommer, Randy Carlyle, Kevin Dineen, John Stevens, John Tortorella and Trent Yawny.