- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: Maple Leafs Shawn Matthias on signing with the Leafs and chance to play under Mike Babcock.
“I never played for Mike In Detroit, but I’m excited now. This is where I wanted to go and he’s a big part of that. We had a good meeting, I got home and talked to my dad and everything (with the Leafs) seemed to be going in the right direction. I don’t see why anyone would not want to play here. It’s going to be amazing.”
The Maple Leafs won’t comment on reports that they have been talking to Devin Setoguchi about a training camp tryout.
Leo Komarov’s traffic violations in Finland have been cleared up. Reports are that he paid $40,000 in fines as speeding violations are tied to annual earnings.
Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello said that they are not considering any more front office changes. There had been rumors of David Conte possibly joining the Leafs scouting staff.
- Kevin Allen of the USA Today: Top five remaining unrestricted free agents.1. Cody Franson
2. Christian Ehrhoff
3. Lubomir Visnovsky
4. Curtis Glencross
5. Martin HavlatOther forwards include: Stephen Weiss, Brendan Morrow, Brad Boyes, Jiri Tlusty, Tyler Kennedy and Michael Ryder.
Red Wings GM Ken Holland said the salary cap is main reason there are so many veterans that are still looking for work
“We haven’t had expansion in 15 years, and we’ve had an influx of players,” Holland said. “Connor McDavid is showing up this season (at age 18). So he is taking someone’s spot.”
Agent Steve Bartlett:
“As painful as this is for guys sitting on the sidelines, we will get into training camp and get into the first week of the season, and some teams are going to go, ‘Oops,’ ” Bartlett said. “They are going to say, ‘I don’t think we are as good as we thought we were, or that kid isn’t as good as we thought, or that kid blew out his knee.’ So there will be movement. Guys will continue to be stressed for a few weeks, but jobs will open up. They always do.”