- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: The LA Kings made a play at the rights for Ilya Kovalchuk, but the New Jersey Devils reject as they still hope to re-sign him. If Dan Hamhuis and the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t reach a deal, the Kings could also be interested in signing him. The Kings like Tomas Kaberle but it may not fit as the Leafs want a top-6 forward, and so do the Kings. The Devils are still trying to sign Paul Martin, but it looks like he maybe heading to the open market. Kaberle could be an option for the Devils if they are unable to sign Martin. The Sharks re-signed Niclas Wallin and Scott Nichol to one year deals. The Phoenix Coyotes still hope to re-sign Zbynek Michalek, but are running out of time.
- Bruce Garrioch in the Toronto Sun: Ray Whitney could sign with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He could get a 2 year deal at $3.5 million per season. Minnesota made a run at David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron and Stephen Weiss. The Oilers offered Andrew Cogliano and another player to Boston for the 2nd overall pick. The Bruins are still working on moving Marc Savard. The Coyotes, Rangers, Leafs, and Thrashers are looking for a center. Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto are on Savard’s list of preferred teams.
- ChicagoBreakingSports: Niklas Hjalmarsson has received a qualifying offer from the Chicago Blackhawks. Andrew Ladd and Jordan Hendry have yet to receive qualifying offers and may hit unrestricted free agency.
- Pat Hickey: Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier must decide this week if he’ll re-sign Dominic Moore. Glen Metropolit and Paul Mara appear to be headed to free agency. He’ll also start working on signing Carey Price to a long term contract.
- Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune: With the Minnesota Wild unable to make any trades during the draft, they may be more active in the free agent market than originally planned, or they may just hold course. The Wild need to address the lack of depth at center. They are hoping that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is able to return from his concussion that happened 17 months ago.
- Pierre LeBrun via Twitter: Yzerman told LeBrun that they were not acquiring the rights to Chris Mason.
- Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: Tim Thomas may have waived his no trade clause. The Flyers have shown interest (this was written before Flyers acquired Nabokov’s rights).
- Darren Dreger via Twitter: The Maple Leafs have shown some interest in Marc Savard. Tomas Kaberle won’t be part of a deal if it happens.
- Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: Burke put Kaberle talks on hold Saturday and focus on the draft. After free agency starts on July 1st, he expects talks to heat up after the free market for offensive defenseman is set.
- Michael Obernauer of the New York Daily News: The New York Rangers and Marc Staal don’t appear close to a deal at the moment.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a wide gap; it’s more like a chasm.
“I’d like to have it done,” Sather said. “In Staal’s situation, he’s in exactly the same position Dubinsky was in last year. Where that’s going to end up is anyone’s imagination. He’s a good player, we like him – just like Dubinsky: we’d like to have him back, we think he’s got a long future, we’re going to treat him fairly. Sometimes agents don’t recognize that – leverage works both ways.”
- Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly: The Flyers may have a verbal agreement with the San Jose Sharks that would send the Flyers 2011 7th round pick to the Sharks for the rights to Evgeni Nabokov.