- Mike Johnston of Sportsnet: Damien Cox is reported that the Hurricanes and Eric Staal have put contract extension talks on hold for the time being.
- Craig Custance of ESPN: The Coyotes have the cap room to add some salary, “have been fairly aggressive in their pursuit of using it wisely,” as they’re not wanting to take on a problem contract. They are trying to add an impact player. The Coyotes could look to pull off a trade similar to the Jets-Sabres Evander Kane trade.David Backes doesn’t seem to be worried about not having a contract extension in place before the start of the season.
“I’ve got agents to deal with that sort of thing. I’ll play hockey,” Backes told ESPN.com this week. “We love St. Louis. We hope to stay here. The business side is the business side, and it has to make sense for everybody. We will cross that bridge as it comes to us.”
The two sides will touch base at some point this season.
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 yesterday morning on if the Bruins could entertain the idea of trading Tuukka Rask and/or Zdeno Chara if they decide to break things up.
“I think one thing they showed last summer was they’re unafraid to do bold things. They made the Hamilton deal. They made the Lucic deal. And that guy Sweeney, he’s not afraid.
“Chara has a no-move, so that would be an interesting one. So does Rask, for that matter.
“Chara – he’s got to play. But I could see another situation where maybe another team might be interested. The question is, though, do they want to do it.
“Rask – there were rumors about him last summer and I checked and I was told no, that he wasn’t available and he probably wouldn’t be available until either Subban or Zane McIntyre, the kid they signed out of North Dakota, was ready.
“Now, I think if you’re really in the tank you can always change that. If depends on what the player wants too. But like I said, there were rumblings about Rask last summer and I was just told they weren’t going to do it while those other kids were too green and just not ready to be the guys.
“But I think it’s worth watching.”
The Wings are always looking, Chara infront of Price, Friedman adds
“Boy, could you imagine that in Montreal? I mean oh, what a storyline that would be.
“I’ll give you another team. I don’t know if they’ll have the cap availability to make it work, but I wonder about somebody like Columbus. But they’re going to have some cap issues. They have to deal with Ryan Johansen in a year.
“But I look at Columbus, and this is just me spit-balling based on your questions – I could see that.”