- Mark Stepneski: The Stars have the 10th overall pick in the draft and have held discussions to move up, but the price hasn’t been right.
“We’re looking at all options,” said Nill. “I talked to a team today about the possibility of trading up and the price was so high that it made it easy to say, ‘That’s OK, you go ahead and do what you need to do.’ I’ve heard that from a couple of teams. We’re ready; we know what we have to do. We’re open to all options.”
There has been no decision yet on whether they’ll re-sign goaltender Richard Bachman.
“He’s in the mix,” Stars GM Jim Nill said of Bachman. “We’ve talked to other teams. Our job this time of year is trying to find the best we can and Bachman is in that mix. We’re just going through our process to see what else is out there.”
- Will DePaoli of Inside Pittsburgh Sports: The Penguins are not big fans of handing three – four year deals to players in their mid 30’s. The 34-year old Pascal Dupuis is looking for a three – year deal, and the Penguins will have to keep Chris Kunitz in mind when dealing with Dupuis according to sources. Kunitz will be 34 next season, the last year of his deal. The Penguins have discussed internally what a three – four year deal at $3.5 – $4 million for Dupuis could mean for Kunitz negotiations. The Pens may be looking for $3.25-$3.5 million and not going beyond three years. The Penguins will begin talks with Kunitz this summer. Jarome Iginla’s agent, Don Meehan, has had no talks with Penguins. The Penguins may be offering Kris Letang a full no-trade clause on a deal five years or less. Letang prefers a max eight year deal with full no trade but could be open to a five or six year deal.
- James Mirtle: Leafs GM Dave Nonis has four unrestricted and six restricted free agents to deal with.
“I can’t stress this enough: The cap is coming down,” Nonis said when asked about stalled talks with centre Tyler Bozak, talks which CBC’s Elliotte Friedman reported this week weren’t going all that well. “It’s the first time in history that it’s come down, and we have to make sure we’re spending our money wisely.
“Not to just retain all the players you have but be in a position where you can try to get a different piece or two. We have to make sure if we’re spending a significant amount of money and term on players that they line up and that it makes sense for us.”
If the Leafs buyout Mike Komisarek, they could have $22 million in salary cap space. Their RFAs could eat $10-$11 million of that.
“You never know what’s going to become available in terms of player movement. Even if there’s a player that may be bought out, there’s always potential for money moving back and forth in deals. So we’re not at that point of making a decision yet.
“It’s my experience you never know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what other teams are thinking or what players might be available. So for us to make that decision on a compliance buyout or two until we actually have to – it doesn’t make sense to do it.”
If talks with Tyler Bozak don’t go well, they’ll look to other option at center. Some potential UFAs are: Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy, Stephen Weiss, Matt Cullen, Valtteri Filppula, Daniel Briere and Boyd Gordon.
