My NHL Trade Rumors.com

Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen: The writing is already on the wall that Jonathan Cheechoo will be bought out by the Ottawa Senators. The 2 week buyout period begins Tuesday, where teams can buyout the contracts at 2/3 their value, and payable over 2x the amount of years left on the contract. Cheechoo’s $3.5 million for next season would turn out to be $1,165,500 cap hit for the next 2 seasons.

George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press: Red Wings GM Ken Holland was on the “NHL Live” radio program, and said they are looking towards drafting a forward with their 21st overall pick at this years NHL Draft. “We’ve got some young defensemen coming,” Holland said. “Probably, ideally, you’d like to find some forwards with some scoring touch. Again, if there’s a defenseman there that we feel has fallen, we’ll take him.” Holland also talked about the Bertuzzi contract talks and he didn’t seem to optomistic as the numbers may not fit. “Obviously, in a cap world, the situation we’re in, we don’t have a ton of money. Todd had a great year for us, and I’m sure he’s gonna have some decisions to make come July 1. We’ll continue to talk to him. We’d like to have him back, but obviously, there’s gotta be a fit financially for the player and for us. Talks are ongoing. We’ll see where they go.”

Ansar Khan of MLive: The Wings re-signed Dman Doug Janik for 2 years (1st year is 2-way, 2nd year is 1-way). Jason Williams was informed yesterday that he won’t be back. The Wings still would like to add 1 more Dman, Andreas Lilja or another cheap Dman. They are still unsure if they are going to offer a contract to Kirk Maltby. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will get a qualifying offer.

The Calgary Herald: Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter confirmed on The Fan 960, that Vesa Toskala won’t be back the Flames, so they’ll be looking for a backup to lessen the load of Miikka Kiprusoff. Kiprusoff has played over 73 games in each of the last 5 seasons. The Flames are in preliminary negotiations with UFA Eric Nystrom and RFA Ian White.

Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The St. Louis Blues and UFA goalie Chris Mason have begun talks. It will come to dollars and term length if a deal can be done or not. Mason could be looking for upwards of $4 million.

Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Boston Bruins assistant coach Craig Ramsay was interviewed by the Atlanta Thrashers for the head coaching. The Thrashers are also interested in John Torchetti

George Malik of MLive: Red Wings GM Ken Holland told MLive that they can’t re-sign Tomas Holmstrom, Todd Bertuzzi, or any of their 5 RFAs before they hear if Nicklas Lidstrom will be back next season or not. Lidstrom has told the them he’ll let them know in a couple weeks. It doesn’t look like Brett Lebda, Jason Williams, and Doug Janik will be back. Derek Meech should get a qualifying offer from them.

Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: Panthers GM Dale Tallon isn’t a fan of players who aren’t willing to pay the price, which means that Nathan Horton could be on his way out, as he known to not have a good work ethic. A Bruin, who has friends on the Panthers has been told that Norton has “No heartbeat”. “We weeded out people who didn’t want to pay the price,” Tallon said. “If you don’t want to pay the price and you don’t want to be involved here, you’re not going to be here.” The Bruins have limited funds available to sign free agents, but could target Flyers winger, Aaron Asham.

Lyle Richardson of Fox Sports: The Montreal Canadiens currently have 14 players locked up for about $45.7 million. Tomas Plekanec is a UFA and it might take around $5 million to re-sign him. Their biggest off-season situation is obviously what to do with Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price. Halak has shown that he can the #1, but Price could be the future star. RFAs Maxim Lapierre, Tom Pyatt, and Benoit Pouliot should be back. Glen Metropolit, Marc-Andre Bergeron, and Paul Mara probably won’t be back. Halak playoff performance may get himself a contract offer from the Canadiens, maybe in the $3 million range. To clear up some salary space, they may try to get rid of Andrei Kostitsyn (1 year, $3.25 million) and Roman Hamrlik (1 year, $5.5 million), but that could be difficult. One option would be for the Canadiens to package one of them with Carey Price. Buying George Laraque out will free up $1 million. Andrei Markov will be a free agent after next year, and could be shopped around if they think he’ll be out of their price range ($7 million?) or not in their long term plans.

Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News: It is possible that the Sharks could re-sign both Patrick Marleau and Evgeni Nabokov, but odds are they will only go after 1. Joe Pavelski and Devin Setoguchi will be getting pay increases, and cap space will be disappearing. If they let Nabokov go, they could go with Thomas Greiss and minor leaguer Alex Stalock, or look to bring in a less expensive goalie to challenge for the #1 spot.

Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer: Carolina Hurricanes majority owner Peter Karmanos Jr. has hired a New York investment firm to help him find a local buyer for a 49% stake in the team. Karmanos former co-owner, Thomas Thewes, passed away a few years ago, he owned the 49% of the team.

Posts Tagged Doug Janik