- Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburgh Times: The Lightning and Steven Stamkos continued negotiating yesterday. It’s “A work in progress” according to GM Steve Yzerman. Stamkos’ agent Mark Guy in a text, “Still working on it.” There was an unfounded twitter rumor that Stamkos’ rights would be sent to the Maple Leafs, and Evgeni Malkin would end up in Tampa Bay.
- Ed Tait of the Winnipeg Free Press: The Capitals are rumored to be shopping Alex Semin around the league with the Canadiens, Predators, Maple Leafs, Flyers, Penguins and Sharks possibly interested. Jets Dman Zach Bogosian’s name has been linked to Semin.
- Dennis Bernstein via twitter: Bernstein thinks that if Alexander Semin is traded, McPhee would ship him West.
- Helene Elliott of the LA Times: Negotiations between Drew Doughty and the LA Kings aren’t moving along quickly. Kings GM Dean Lombardi,
“I am getting the feeling on Drew that unfortunately this could take a while. As we just saw this past week free agency produces a frenzy for players at all levels. We must be judicious about not getting into this market for our own players. Therefore it is critical with Drew that the dollars reflect a fair rate of return regarding the term of the contract. We must be prepared to do what it takes to get it right.”
Lombardi added that they’d match any offer sheet. The Kings may be waiting to see what kind of deal the Predators and Shea Weber come too. Doughty’s agent Don Meehan in an email, “There is nothing new to report concerning any further discussions concerning Drew Doughty.”
- Darren Dreger via twitter: Tyler Bozak re-signs with the Maple Leafs for 2 years, $3 million. (Last night there were reports that he signed for 2 years, $1.9 million)
- Katie Carrera of the Washington Post: The Capitals are about $545,000 under the salary cap with RFAs Troy Brouwer and Karl Alzner still unsigned. They are able to go over the cap by 10% during the summer, and in the fall they might put Tom Poti and Eric Fehr on LTIR if they are not fully healed. The Capitals could also look at some trades to create some flexibility. Ted Leonsis wrote, “We will look to make some trades in the off season maybe even sign another free agent. We will continue to look at all of our options. We may not be able to get anything done. We may be able to do something. Time will tell.”
- Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun: After locking up Andrew Ladd yesterday, Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is hopeful to get a deal done with Blake Wheeler soon,
“We had great conversations with his representative (Tuesday) and those will be ongoing,” said Cheveldayoff. “The fact he filed for salary arbitration doesn’t mean much at this time. We have a lot of time to get a deal done.”
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dipatch: The Blue Jackets are still looking to add a defenseman to play with newly re-signed Marc Methot on the 2nd pairing. They are talking with Bryan McCabe, Brent Sopel, Scott Hannan and some others.
- Jim Matheson via twitter: Ales Hemsky will be in the last year of his deal and will make $4.1 million. It’s sounding like he’d like to re-sign with Oilers.
- Slava Malamud via twitter: Semyon Varlamov’s agent has said that Varlamov has signed a deal with the Avalanche, and that talk about door being open to the KHL are lies.