On the expansion draft …
Isabelle Khurshudyan: “If you’re exposing an RFA goalie in expansion draft, he needs to have a qualifying offer. Caps have extended one to Grubauer already.”
John Shannon: “NHL’s 1st buyout period has started. Ends June 30. But no buyouts during Expansion Draft period (June 17-21).”
On the Carolina Hurricanes …
Michael Smith: The Hurricanes signed forward Teuvo Teravainen to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $2.86 million.
Cap Friendly: After signing Teravainen, the Hurricanes have about $48.46 million committed to 17 players – about $5.5 million under the current salary floor.
On the Colorado Avalanche …
Adrian Dater of BSN Denver: The Avalanche announced today that they will be buying out the final year of defenseman Francois Beauchemin’s contact.
The Avs won’t get any salary cap relief from the $4.5 million buyout as Beachemin was 35 years old when he signed the deal.
The Avs do get a bit of salary relief – $1.5 million in each of the next two years as opposed to $4.5 million next year.
The buyout means they don’t have to protect him in the upcoming expansion draft because of his no-movement clause. The Avalanche didn’t approach Beauchemin about waiving his NMC, with GM Joe Sakic saying their goal was to get younger and faster.
Pierre LeBrun: Beauchemin’s agent said that Sakic called Beauchemin last night to let him know their plan to buy him out.
On Drew Doughty …
Leafs Lunch: LA Kings defenseman Drew Doughty on TSN 1050: “I think all of us Southern Ontario players, we secretly want to play for the #Leafs, you know, we all have that kind of soft spot”
Leafs Lunch: Doughty on how some players view playing in Toronto:
“We would all want to play here, especially with the team, the way they’re getting better and stuff like that, but I think it just always comes down to how hard it would be to live in a being that big of a celebrity. I’m spoiled in L.A. where I walk anywhere I want and not one person’s going to recognize me. If, say I did for some reason play for the Leafs, I don’t know if I could get used to that or not. I think that’s the problem, why guys don’t sign here.”
