- Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington: It will be hard for the Capitals to re-sign Mike Green and get under the salary cap. After the season, GM Brian MacLellan said that they could go into next season with Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Orlov as their third pairing.The Capitals are at about $50 million with 14 players under contract (seven forwards, six Dmen and two goalies), but need to re-sign RFAs Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Marcus Johansson. Once they are able to re-sign those three, they’ll have a better idea if they can do anything with UFAs Jay Beagle, Joel Ward, Eric Fehr and Green.
- Chuck Gormley of CSN Washington: Branden Holtby’s agent, David Kaye on contract talks with the Capitals.
“Nothing’s changed so far,” Kaye said, declining to comment further.
The Capitals need to qualify Holtby by June 25th for at least $2 million if he’s not signed before then. Holtby is said to be wanting a long-term deal. He’s two years away from being a UFA. His cap hit could be in the $5 to $6 million range.
- Tom Gulitti of The Record: Devils GM Ray Shero said that decisions on whether to re-sign some potential UFAs are “ongoing.” Shero on how aggressive they will be in free agency:
“To be determined, I think, in terms of direction, in terms of the age, in terms of the prices.”
The Devils have about $23 million in cap space with 15 players signed. After signing RFAs Adam Larsson and Eric Gelinas, they’ll still have plenty of cap space.
Shero said that no teams have contacted him about the 6th overall pick yet.
“Not yet,” he said. “The draft is getting closer every day, but it’s one of those things where teams are finding out. Sometimes moving up or down you’re not going to know until the pick comes. You’ll have those conversations up until Friday or even on the floor after the draft starts. We might be interested. We might not be. ‘We might be interested in moving up, we might be interested in moving down,’ you’ll hear from a team, but, ‘We’ll just see what’s there.’
“That’s what it comes down to. There’s no way you’re making a trade to move up or down – I can’t say you’ll never do it , but teams want to see what’s there.”
- Andy Strickland: If the Coyotes can’t work out a trade involving 24-year old RFA Tye McGinn for a draft pick, he’ll likely become a UFA.
- Sam Charchidi: Flyers GM Ron Hextall said that it’s doubtful that he’ll try to move up in the draft as he thinks that picks three through seven are almost equal.
- Bruce Garrioch: Senators coach Dave Cameron said he’s spoken with four or five candidates about an assistant coaching position with the Senators: “We’re getting close,” said Cameron.