- Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News: The Rangers lost Ryan McDonagh and Kevin Klein over the weekend, and called up Conor Allen and Dylan McIlrath. Now is the time to sign Marc Staal to a long-term contract extension. If GM Glen Sather hasn’t figured that out by now, he never will. Dan Boyle is not close to returning as he could barely use his hand during yesterday’s skate. Ryan Malone was put on waivers yesterday, likely ending his brief time with the Rangers. Malone mentioned yesterday he wasn’t sure if he would accept an AHL assignment if he went unclaimed.
- Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: The Sabres will end up trading Chris Stewart, Drew Stafford and Andrej Mezsaros for draft picks. Goalies Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvrith are pending UFAs as well.
- Jenn Menendez of the Pittsburgh Gazette: The Penguins signed Christian Ehrhoff to a one-year deal after the Sabres bought out his contract this past offseason. He’s not looking past this season just yet.
“I’m not too concerned with what’s beyond this year,” Ehrhoff said. “I just want to come here and have a good season as a team and be successful as a team. That’s my main goal.”
- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: The Lightning pursued defenseman Matt Niskanen this offseason, offering him a six-year contract.
“It was intriguing, talking to Steve especially,” Niskanen said. “I’ve heard good things about this place and the staff and the organization. I was kind of honored that they called and were interested.”
- Ansar Khan of MLive: It’s looking like Daniel Alfredsson’s career is done. He hasn’t skated at the Joe Louis Arena in several weeks and has expressed his frustration to Wings GM Ken Holland. The Wings are giving him his time to decide.
- Nichols on Hockey: Elliotte Friedman on SportsNet 960 on Friday on Sean Courturier.
“The other thing too is, they have a lot of creative offensive players there. Giroux, Voracek, on down. I think – and the other thing too is they could have traded Couturier. They won’t because a) they believe he’s a great defensive player, but he’s got a lot more offensive upside. They’re to wait to find out what they have in a lot of these guys.