- James O’Brien of Pro Hockey via Michael Russo Audio: Indications are that Ducks prospect Justin Schultz won’t be signing with the Ducks. Russo said that a Ducks may look into tampering charges and could go after a “team that already has gotten to Schultz.” Russo “guesses” that Schultz already knows who he’ll sign with and it could be the Maple Leafs. Schultz was drafted by Burke and played with Jake Gardiner.
- Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The Rangers could have $20 million in summer cap space if the cap goes up to $76 million. Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi will be UFA after 2 more seasons. The Rangers will look for a defenseman to play with Marc Staal. If the Rangers were to add a Ryan Suter or scoring help in the likes of Rick Nash or Zach Parise, they would need to get rid of a big contract or two. They will look to re-sign Martin Biron and Brandon Prust.
- Steve Zipay of Newsday : Zipay thinks the Rangers were missing offensive creativity and skill. Management knew they needed to add scoring at the trade deadline, which is why they offered a package of Brandon Dubinsky, Tim Erixon, JT Miller and other prospects and picks for Rick Nash. The Rangers have 8 UFAs: Martin Biron, Brandon Prust, Ruslan Fedotenko, John Mitchell, Stu Bickell, John Scott, Steve Eminger and Jeff Woywitka and 3 RFAs: Michael Del Zotto, Anton Stralman, Mats Zuccarello.
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: A month of trade talks surrounding Rick Nash should begin this week, but don’t expect a final decision until late June or early July. Nash’s 5 team trade list may have now been expanded, though the Blue Jackets will move forward as if the list doesn’t exist. A deal could be done around the June 22nd draft. If he’s not traded at the draft, they may wait for the losers of the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise sweepstakes.