- Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: Devan Dubnyk talks with the Wild began yesterday. GM Fletcher will meet with owner Craig Leipold this week to talk about their offseason plan and will put together their budget for next season. For the Wild to re-sign Dubnyk, his new deal will be well north of $3 million. Dollar amount will depend on term. A three-year deal would cost more money than a five-year deal.Fletcher said it’s too early to be thinking about which players could be traded.Russo thinks they’ll be offering Jared Spurgeon up this offseason. If Mikael Granlund talks go off the rails, they could look at moving him.The Wild will be one of the teams interested in Mike Reilly when he becomes a UFA on June 15th – can’t sign until July 1st. Only the Blue Jackets are allowed to speak with Reilly before the 15th. Reilly’s dad is an investor with the Wild’s investment group. The Blackhawks, Rangers, Kings and Oilers have interest in Reilly as well.
- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: Due to their salary cap position, the Wild are unlikely to make any major offseason moves. Contract talks with pending UFA Devan Dubnyk have started, and they’ll speak with Mikael Granlund’s camp before June 8th. The Wild are already at $61.9 million for nine forwards, five defensemen and two goalies. Pending RFAs include Granlund, Erik Haula and Christian Folin. So it’s safe to say the Wild won’t be active with any of the bigger named free agents. GM Chuck Fletcher said a trade may not be out of the question.
“We have a lot of players under contract and the core of the team is under contract. We’ll see. We can just bring back our team. We don’t really have to go out and do a whole bunch here. I’ll take a look and talk to other teams and see what may be available.”
No decisions have been made on a Niklas Backstrom buyout.
- Adam Vingan of the Tennessean: The Predators have 11 pending UFA and RFAs.Mike Fisher – GM David Poile has already said that Fisher can stay as long as he wants. They’ve been talking contract extension throughout the season.Mike Ribeiro – has said he would love to be back.Matt Cullen – still deciding if he wants to play next season or not. Returning to the Predators is unlikely if he decides to play.
Cody Franson – role diminished after being acquired by the Predators. He won’t be back as Poille has already admitted that “it wasn’t a perfect fit.”
Anton Volchenkov – has held talks with the Preds about re-signing. Would be a depth role.
