- Team 990 Audio: PJ Stock talking about Wade Belak “there’s a lot more that’s gonna come out of the story.” May be more accidental than suicide. Stock also talks about fighting in hockey. (It’s well worth a listen). George Laraque in the Globe and Mail on “The new problem in the NHL.” CBC Sports: Belak’s mother confirms that he battled depression but thought he had control of it. (audio interview with his mom can be viewed at the CBC link, no embed option with the video.)
- Dmitry Chesnokov of Yahoo! Sports: Maple Leafs forward Mikhail Grabovski credits Zdeno Chara hits last year on improving his play, which also may have given him a mild concussion.
“Zdeno Chara, too. I don’t have very good memories of Chara from last year. I think he has made me faster, he made me pay more attention to hits, to be more maneuverable.”
“Well, I think I had a mild concussion, he said. “But I recovered pretty quickly. And now I am feeling absolutely fine.”
- Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News: 2 people have said that Tom Gaglardi has submitted a bid to buy the Dallas Stars. September 14th a prepackaged bankruptcy plan is to be presented to the court.
- Katie Strang of Newsday: Islanders forward Frans Nielsen is heading into his contract year and if he hits the open market, plenty of GMs will be interested. Nielsen says that,
“I’d love to stay here for many more years,”
“I think it will be the most amazing thing to have been here since Day 1 of this rebuild, to go through all those tough times, and turn it around and win a Stanley Cup, hopefully very soon,” Nielsen said. “I think that would make it even more fun to win.”
- Thomas Reed via twitter: The Blue Jackets have held no negotiations with Jared Boll or Derek Dorsett who both will be RFAs after the 2012-13 season.
- Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald: Calgary Flames president Ken King. When asked which number 1 center the team is currently targeting,
“I’m not going to sit here and say that we have a legitimate No. 1 centreman. We don’t. We have players who can slot in there. But we’re still obviously searching and we’re in the market for a No. 1 centre.”
King on what the plans are with the cap room created with the Regehr and Langkow trades,
“We still have about $3.6 million worth of cap space. We are looking to improve our hockey club every single day. Whether we do something before training camp or there’s an opportunity on the waiver wire or there’s an opportunity during the season or at the trade deadline, I can assure you that ownership has given us a budget . . . we’re permitted to be a cap(-max) team.”
- Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: Wild forward Guillaume Latendresse only made it in 11 games last year after arriving in training camp out shape, has worked his “butt off” this summer and improved his nutrition. “My nutrition was really a big key this summer. I like to eat. Everybody knows it. Sometimes it can be a battle for me, but I’ve been good with it and I feel really good on the ice.””