- Chris Johnston: The NHL’s holiday roster freeze kicks in tonight at 11:59 pm and runs 12:01 am on December 28th.
On the Calgary Flames …
- Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun: Flames pending RFA Johnny Gaudreau would like to get his contract situation over with sooner than later.
“I’d like to get it done quicker,” the Calgary Flames star winger told the Calgary Sun when asked about a pending new deal.
“(Then) you don’t have to worry about it — it’s already finished and you can just get on with your season rather than thinking about it throughout the whole season in terms of when you’re going to sign and all that stuff. It’s something I’d definitely be thinking about in the next couple months and something I will probably be talking to my agent about a lot in the upcoming months here.”
Gaudreau has put up similar numbers to Vladimir Tarasenko, but the debate is if would come in around Tarasenko’s eight-year, $60 million contract he signed last summer. GM Brad Treliving and agent Lewis Gross won’t talk about numbers publicly, with word that they haven’t talked numbers at all.
“We really haven’t,” said Gross.
“There’s been some discussions back and forth but nothing specific. We’ve kind of said, ‘we’ll be talking soon,’ but nothing specific.”
Entering the start of the season, there was hope that they could sign both Gaudreau and Sean Monahan to contract extensions similar to Oilers Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle – around $6 million a year. Monahan’s offensive numbers are down this year.
Without make a trade or two to clear up some future salary, it’s unlikely they will be able re-sign Kris Russell, who could get $5-6 million on the open market.
On the Ottawa Senators …
- Don Brennan of the Ottawa Senators: GM Bryan Murray could be making a decision soon if he’ll stay on as the teams GM, take a part-time advisory role or retire when his contract runs out at the end of the year.
“He knows when he’s got to bring somebody new in, if he’s not going to be involved,” Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said Friday.
“If he is going to be involved in some way, he’ll know the right time (to make the announcement).
“We have a lot of things that start in the beginning of the year, including (getting ready for) the draft, any final trades that we might want to do, budgets, all that stuff. If we promote from within, that’s different, because that person would be familiar with us. But if we go outside, then you’ve got to get somebody in a headspace of ‘welcome to Ottawa, this is how we do things.’ It’s much different than the big franchises.”