- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: The Wild might not be able to buy out goaltender Niklas Backstrom as Backstrom had elbow surgery after the season.
“He had a procedure done at the end of the season to clean up a problem that happened earlier in the year,” Fletcher said. “I honestly don’t know the full prognosis at this point, but it’s not a long-term thing and we’re hoping that he’ll be good to go in short order and healthy.”
Injured players can’t be bought out unless they have been cleared by team physicians. The NHL buyout period starts on June 15th or 48 hours after the Stanley Cup is awarded, and ends on June 30th. The belief is that Backstrom won’t be cleared by the end of the month. GM Chuck Fletcher has never confirmed that they planned on buying him out. Even if they were to buy him out, he would still count towards the salary cap as he’s on a 35+ deal. The Wild would save $1.33 million off his $4 million salary.
- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: Coyotes executive on the Coyotes draft options if they keep the pick.
“We could be set with two building block defencemen the next 10 years, or we can address a need up front”.
If the Coyotes draft Dylan Strome, do the Leafs take the best player available or trade the pick to add more assets by moving down two or three spots where they could possibly draft Lawson Crouse, Mitch Marner or maybe Ivan Provorov? They might be able to land a second round pick. They traded away theirs for Jonathan Bernier.
The Coyotes are also interested in Marner and could reunite him with Max Domi.
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: The Devils need some young forwards right now, but it shouldn’t be a surprise if they draft a defenseman with their No. 6 pick according to Ray Shero and David Conte. They will pick the best player available.
“I get it,” Shero said of the Devils’ need for young forwards. “(But) you’re taking the best asset. You’re thinking three to five years down the road. There’s nothing worse than picking a position for the position and then all the sudden you passed on someone pretty special because, oh, you had enough of those.”
If Noah Hanifin were to drop to No. 6, would be hard to see the Devils passing on him. The Devils will talk to Mitch Marner and Pavel Zacha again before the draft. The Devils talked to Kyle Connor at the combine, but he said he hadn’t been asked for a second interview. Zacha met with 24 teams.