- Igor Eronko: KHL president Alex Medvedev to Sport-Express.ru on when we’d see Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin in the KHL: ‘You mean comeback to Russia? There might be good surprises in a year’
- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: Training camp is just over two weeks away for the Wild and they still have to RFAs in Nino Niederreiter and Darcy Kuemper. GM Chuck Fletcher said on Friday that talks continue but gave no indication if they are close on a deal for either.
“We’d rather have a contract done, but these things happen. You’d like everything to be clean and simple, but it doesn’t always happen that way,” Fletcher said. “We’ll continue to try to etch into it.”
Fletcher has said they won’t add any UFAs and it’s too early to say if they’ll bring someone in on a tryout. The agents of Ilya Bryzgalov, Ryan Malone, Paul Bissonnette and George Parros have called Fletcher.
- Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun: The Canucks have added six new players from the end of last season and that doesn’t include prospects Bo Horvat or Nicklas Jensen who could make the team and force another roster move.
“If these guys come in and show they deserve to be on the team, then I’ll move somebody to make room for them,” Benning said. “But it’s going to be earned, not given. Coming from the organizations I worked for previously (Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres), we let players develop properly in the minor leagues. I don’t want to rush our players on development. I’m glad we have good, young players. But they have to earn their spot on the teams, and when they do we’ll make room for them.”
- Curtis Zupke of NHL.com: The Ducks signed Dany Heatley to a one-year, $1 million deal this summer, and he’ll get a shot with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
“Every time we’ve played him, he’s been a dangerous player,” Boudreau said. “I think we can try him with Getzlaf and Perry. We tried Dustin Penner there … I think this can work better.”
- Ryan Dadoun of Pro Hockey Talk: Five UFAs that could make an impact on a team despite remaining unsigned: Dustin Penner, Scott Gomez (tryout with Devils), Martin Brodeur, Daniel Alfredsson and Ilya Bryzgalov.
