- Luke Fox of SportsNet: There appears to be a big gap in contract talks between the Kings and Anze Kopitar, but Kopitar said there is no reason to panic.
“There’s no reason for me to panic. There’s no reason for anybody to panic,” the star centre said.
“I’d like to stay an L.A. King, and I’m pretty sure the Kings would like me to come back. We’ll see. We’ll work on it. The talks are still ongoing, just maybe on a little bit of a slower pace than everybody expected.”
Kopitar would like to get a deal done before the start of training camp, but isn’t really worried if it doesn’t happen.
“It would be ideal. It would be very nice if we could get this done , but if not, no alarm is going off. There’s still plenty of time,” he said.
- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Steven Stamkos said that contract extension talks are in the “middle stages” and there is no deadline to stop them. Stamkos and teammates insist that it won’t become a distraction. Stamkos added that talks aren’t at a stage to be cut off and that there’s still a month until their season opener.
“My teammates know the kind of person that I am, the type of leader that I am,” Stamkos said. “I’m going to do everything possible to help our team win games. As long as that’s the mentality, nothing else should really bug us.”
- Mike Harrington: Sabres GM Tim Murray said that they are still interested in free agent Patrick Kaleta. Their roster is pretty full at the moment, but there could be a spot in Rochester (AHL).
- Tom Gulitti: There is still the possibility that the Devils invite someone to training camp on a PTO, but GM Ray Shero said it may not happen until the last minute.
