- Sidney Crosby Press Conference:
- Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports: Cory Stillman will officially retire from the NHL today. A press conference will be held in Florida, and he’ll be working with the Panthers in the player development department. He did receive some offers, including the Hurricanes, but felt it was time to move on.
- Slava Malamud via twitter: The KHL season will be on hold until September 12th with the possible exception of Lokomoitv. Dmitry Chesnokov via twitter: KHL President Medvedev said that Lokomotiv would be made up of team alumni playing elsewhere and free agents. Slava Malamud via twitter: Between 30 and 40 KHL players have volunteered to play for Lokomotiv. Looking like Lokomotiv will be rebuilt through a draft with 1-2 players coming from each team. Maxim Zyuzyakin was sent down to their junior team the night before, would have been on the plane if hadn’t been. The 2 survivors, Galimov and Sizov, are in Moscow for further treatment. Russia’s top burn specialist has been summoned to help save Galimov.
- Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: The NHL has an “Emergency Rehabilitation Plan” if a team has a catastrophe and is left with less that 14 players and 1 goalie.
• The league requires each team to have a $1 million (all figures U.S.) insurance policy on each player.
• The “disabled team” would be allowed to negotiate to buy players under contract from other teams, with payment coming from the insurance money.
• If that didn’t fill out the roster, a draft would be held, much like an expansion draft. Teams could protect 10 players and one goalie.
• The disabled team would be allowed to take no more than one player from each of the other teams. The price for each player is $1 million in insurance money.