On the Red Wings …
- Ansar Khan of MLive: The Red Wings and winger Justin Abdelkader have made significant progress towards a contract extension. They are putting “the finishing touches” on a new long-term contract that could be finalized in the next few weeks. The contract is expected to be longer than four years. It’s not known what the cap hit could be, but it’s likely going to be over $4 million a season. The 28-year old Abdelkader is ending the final year of his four-year contract that carries a $1.8 million cap hit, but with a $2.25 million salary this year.
- Other pending unrestricted free agents for the Red Wings include: Darren Helm, Drew Miller, Joakim Andersson, Brad Richards and Kyle Quincey.
- Their restricted free agent list includes: Riley Sheahan, Teemu Pulkkinen, Tomas Jurco, Landon Ferraro, Danny DeKeyser, Alexey Marchenko and Petr Mrazek.
On the Jets …
- Luke Fox of Sportsnet: Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd would be big losses for the Jets if they were unable to re-sign him, and they left via free agency. The Jets also have to deal with pending RFAs in Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was on Hockey Central at Noon on Tuesday, he won’t say much on how the talks are going and wouldn’t say if they were close to a deal.
“We continue to work on it. We’ve got good dialogue with their group, and we’ll continue to work on things,” Cheveldayoff said.
On if there is concern about having their captains future unclear.
“If it was a unique phenomenon to the Winnipeg Jets, there would be a little nervousness,” Cheveldayoff said. “When you have professionals like Ladd and Buff, they just go play and let everyone else do the work.”
On the Hurricanes …
- Bob McKenzie of TSN: Jeff Skinner’s name has appeared in trade talks again recently. They may not be intensely shopping him, but sense is that they would move him for the right price. Other teams are not eager to trade for struggling players who have a concussion history. He also carries a $5.725 million salary cap hit.
