- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Lightning owner Jeff Vinik isn’t panicking that captain Steven Stamkos doesn’t have a contract extension.
“I love watching Steven Stamkos play, I’m not worried about him,” Vinik said at Fan Fest today at Amalie Arena. “He’s a great player, great leader, great person. I hope he’s with this organization for a long time to come.”
Vinik is confident that GM Steve Yzerman and Stamkos’ camp can work out a deal. Vinik said that Yzerman has the go ahead money-wise to do what is “best for the long-term interest of this franchise.”
- Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: The Bruins have seven defenseman on one-way contracts, as well as Joe Morrow and Colin Miller. Coach Claude Julien said they could start the season with eight defensemen.
“Just because you sign guys it doesn’t mean automatically in. I think has to definitely earn his spot like everybody else. But the reason we did sign him is he’s got some experience. Being here is one thing being in the top six is another,” said Julien. “There are those kinds of competitions too. I know we’re going to end up keeping at least one probably two extra D’s…we’ll decide at the end. But we could end up carrying eight Ds this year. We’ll see how that goes.”
- Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun: Nazem Kadri signed a one-year, $4.1 million contract this offeason, and is hoping the extra training this offseason will result if better play and a cash in on his next contract.
- Ed Tait of the Winnipeg Free Press: (from last week) Jets Dustin Byfuglien is entering the last year of his deal. He had been linked in offseason trade rumors to the Bruins, Islanders, Rangers, Flyers, Penguins, Canadiens, Wild and Oilers. The Jets also have pending UFA Andrew Ladd to deal with, as well as pending RFAs in Jacob Trouba, Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry and Michael Hutchinson. Consensus appears to be that a new Byfuglien deal could be in the $7 million per year range.
