- Pierre LeBrun via twitter: LeBrun spoke with Red Wings GM Ken Holland who confirmed he has spoken with Jaromir Jagr’s camp, only preliminary at this point. LeBrun spoke with Jagr who confirmed interest in coming back to NHL. Petr Svoboda, Jagr’s agent, confirms that they’ve spoken with the Red Wings and Canadiens.
- Will DePaoli of Inside Pittsburgh Sports: Jagr’s camp has reportedly been in contact with the Capitals and Rangers. The Penguins are not interested at this time.
- Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Penguins GM Ray Shero doesn’t have any deadline for re-signing winger Tyler Kennedy. He has no plans of trading his rights if nothing is finalized by July 1st. Re-signing Kennedy is still a priority for Shero despite not making much progress on a deal.
- Bob McKenzie via twitter: No players were put on waivers today, may happen tomorrow.
- Eric Francis via twitter: Niklas Hagman and Ales Kotalik are buyout possibilities for the Flames, but most likely buried in the minors. No team would likely touch Matt Stajan if he was put on waivers.
- Will DePaoli via twitter: The LA Kings remain ‘intrigued’ by Alexei Ponikarovsky, despite not having a good season.
- Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune: Lightning GM Steve Yzerman is confident that they can re-sign Steven Stamkos.
“It is our intention to resign him, but he is restricted and we have the ability to match any potential offer sheet that might be put forward and we are in position to do that,” Yzerman said. “So, we are quite confident that Steven will be playing for the Lightning, and that’s our goal and we haven’t explored anything else and we don’t intend to look at it any other way.”
Discussions are being held with representatives from 3 of their free agents; Eric Brewer, Sean Bergenheim and Dwayne Roloson.
“I’ve been in contact with all their agents, in some cases we have exchanged numbers and, in a couple of other cases with our UFAs, we’ve said we are going to see where we are with a couple of players and then we’ll get back and let them know where we stand,” Yzerman said. “And that obviously has to take place in the next couple of weeks here.”
- Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer: The Hurricanes re-signed defenseman Jay Harrison to a 2 year, $1.4 million deal. They are not close to re-signing UFAs Jussi Jokinen, Chad LaRose, and Joni Pitkanen.
“With Pitkanen, Jokinen and LaRose, we know what their position is,” Rutherford said, referring to their financial demands. “I’ve given our position. It does not appear we will be able to sign them.”
GM Jim Rutherford hasn’t had any substantive talks with Eric Cole, “We expected to hear something by now, but we have not,” Rutherford said.“Things are not moving as we had hoped, and it’s getting closer to July 1,” Rutherford said Thursday. “We may have to look at other options. It may be easier to trade for players with existing contracts. Then we would know what we would be spending next year.
“I still prefer to sign some of our players. If not, we will look at a trade.
They will not look at trading their 12th overall pick at next weeks draft, nor any of their top prospects like Zac Dalpe, Zach Boychuk or Drayson Bowman. Rutherford will look to upgrade their top 4 defenseman. Kevin Bieksa and Christian Ehrhoff could be possibilities if they hit the open market.