- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: Artem Panarin is expected to sign with the Blackhawks. The Flames, Canadiens, Penguins and Maple Leafs all made pitches for him. The Flames may have been the closest, but with so many small forwards, Panarin thought it might be too many.Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has asked Craig MacTavish to stay with the team, but wouldn’t expanded on what capacity. Source saying MacTavish didn’t see the replacement coming and was hurt by it.
Chiarelli on if he’s committed to Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Nail Yakupov as much as the previous management:
“I don’t have any intention to do something drastic. I’m not coming in guns-ablazing…It is very hard to find good players.”
The Bruins are expected to speak with Ray Shero and Paul Fenton this week. Other candidates could include John Ferguson Jr. and Tom Fitzgerald.
An executive on Evgeni Malkin,
“You wouldn’t trade Malkin for another player making $9M, because that doesn’t help you,” one GM said. “But if you can get three strong pieces and a first-round draft pick, maybe you think about it.”
Luke Richardson said last week that he ready to consider head coaching positions.
Cody Franson wasn’t a fit in Nashville, but he was on and off the ice in Toronto. Could a reunion be in the mix?
Maple Leafs assistant GM Kyle Dubas on if they would not draft Mitch Marner because they have smaller forwards in William Nylander and Connor Brown.
“Here’s the way I look at it,” he said. “Right now, we aren’t good enough to be picky about smaller players. We need as many elite players as we can. If we get into playoffs and are too small, or overwhelmed, it’s easier to trade small for size than draft for size and trade for skill.”
- Katie Strang of ESPN: Mike Babcock wouldn’t talk about his future last night and will wait until their season-ending media conference.
“I’m not talking about that now,” Babcock said in his postgame media conference from Amalie Arena.
“I’ll be happy to talk about that crap then,” he said.
Babcock may have tipped his hand on what he might be thinking regarding the future of the Red Wings organization.
“We are what we are. They have a young team that, they were bad here for long enough that they were able to rebuild and get good young players, and young players at key positions. Three of our best players are 34 , 35 and 37 . So any way you look at it, we’re a team that’s changed a ton of players, we’re a team that’s added a lot of youth to our lineup and, right now on the outside they don’t pick us as a Stanley Cup contender.”
“We have lots of good, young players, no question about it. And we’ve got some good ones coming. But who’s going to replace ?” he asked. “I don’t think is going anywhere right away, but that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to have big time players up the middle and on the back to be successful. So those are questions that our organization works toward, we’ve been drafting good, we’ve been developing good, but we’ve been winning too much. That’s the facts.”
Potential landing spots if Babcock leaves Detroit are the Oilers, Maple Leafs, Sabres, Flyers and Sharks.
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Before the season, Babcock turned down a five-year contract extension worth $3 million a season. He’s expected to become the highest paid coach, earning between $4 and $5 million.
- Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post: Though he was fired by the Flyers almost two weeks ago, Craig Berube will meet with GM Ron Hextall again.
“I don’t expect anything, to be honest with you,” Berube said when asked if he thought another job in the organization might come from the meeting. “This conversation is just to sit down and talk with him and get his thoughts and what he saw and what he thinks and also for me to improve. I can ask for his opinion on what he thought.”