On the Kings …
- John Hoven: Multiple sources close to the Anze Kopitar – Kings situation … they are currently around eight years at $9.75 million per season.
On the Predators …
- Adam Vingan of the The Tennessean: (mailbag) The Predators are missing a top-flight forward, especially at center. GM David Poile told Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports that he “is keeping an eye on reinforcements at the forward spot.” Poile added.
“In goal and in defense, we’re very pleased there,” Poile told Wyshynski. “Can we improve our forwards a bit? That would probably be the missing piece. … I’m happy with our team but we have a lot of hockey to play to get to the position of getting to the playoffs and getting to the trade deadline, when you see what’s available to you.”
- Platinum Seat Ghosts: Pierre McGuire on the Predators: “I have to think they’re going to be be one of the more aggressive teams in terms of trying to procure a scoring forward.”
On the Oilers …
- Damien Cox of Sportsnet: Wonder if this is the year the Oilers use their first round pick to improve their roster. Not necessarily about Travis Hamonic, but some have 24- to 28-year olds and would covet another first round pick. You have to believe that one of their former first round picks or this years first round picks gets traded.
On the Jets …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 on the Winnipeg Jets.
“As part of this whole Hamonic thing in Winnipeg, I do think that the Jets are going to go back to Dustin Byfuglien and take another run at, ‘Can we sign you here.’ Cheveldayoff didn’t talk about it. The agent wouldn’t talk about it. But there is a sense that they want to have all their ducks in a row before they decide whether or not to do this. And taking another run at Byfuglien is part of that.
“I think the issue there is term as much as money. I think the Jets want to go shorter term, but it doesn’t make any sense for Byfuglien to do that. So I think if Winnipeg gets up into the five, six-year range, then there’s a chance of getting a deal done because I do think that Byfuglien would stay there happily.”