Helen Elliott via Twitter: Kings GM Dean Lombardi says Kings and Kovalchuk are “re-engaged”, Kovalchuk to make counter-offer today. Pierre LeBrun heard the same thing this morning.
Chuck Gormley of the Courier Post: The trading of Simon Gagne may be tied to Ilya Kovalchuk signing somewhere (New Jersey?). The New York Islanders and Los Angeles Kings may still be looking to add offense, and Gagne could be a possibility. The Kings have $17 million in cap space and have been rumored to be interested (also rumored that they are not interested). The Islanders, Avalanche, Thrashers and Blues may also have the space to add Gagne’s $5.25 million salary. The Flyers would have interest in Kings forwards Wayne Simmonds. The the Flyers don’t take back too much salary, they could look to add Marty Turco for 2-3 years, $2.5-3 million per season.
Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: Tyler Wright, the development coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, is in Russia meeting with Nikita Filatov for 4 days. The trip is about measuring his “fitness and reiterating expectations in advance of training camp”. GM Scott Howson, “We just wanted to go over and reach out to him, find out how his training is going, let him know where we stand on him coming to training camp, and relay the expectations of our new coaching staff.”
