- Charley Walters of Twin Cities: Should look for Wild owner Craig Leipold to go after UFA Thomas Vanek this summer. He would replace Dany Heatley in offense and salary slot. Walters said not to be surprised if Brian Lawton ends up getting a GM offer from the Capitals.
- Ansar Khan of MLive: Red Wings needs this offseason:1. A top-four right handed defenseman – options include: Matt Niskanen, Dan Boyle, Derek Morris, Tom Gilbert and Marek Zidlicky.
2. A decent-sized scoring winger – Thomas Vanek, Matt Moulson, Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik, Jarome Iginla, Jaromir Jagr and Devin Setoguchi.
The Wings will have about $20 million in cap space, but have to take care of RFAs Danny DeKeyser, Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan.
They will not use an amnesty buyout on Johan Franzen. If they Wings want to get rid of Franzen, they’ll have to trade him. He has a cap hit of $3.95 million, with six-years remaining and $17.5 million.
It is doubtful that David Legwand will be back.
If Daniel Alfredsson wants to play another year, it’s likely the Wings could work out a deal with him.
Kyle Quincy will probably not be re-signed, though it is possible.
The Wings would like to re-sign Jonas Gustavsson, but may worry about his injury issues. Other free-agent options include: Brian Elliott, Jaroslav Halak, Jonas Hiller, Al Montoya, Chad Johnson and Carter Hutton. The Wings plan to keep Petr Mrazek in the AHL for one more year.
Wings trade candidates include: Joakim Andersson and Jakub Kindl.
- Ryan Dadoun of Pro Hockey Talk: The 37-year old Zdeno Chara knows his playing days are getting shorter.
“As you get older and you’ve been in the league for a while, you don’t realize how much you’re going to maybe miss that part of the game once you’re gone,” Chara said, per the Metro West Daily News. “So I’m not saying that I’m thinking about being gone or retiring, but I’m kind of realizing that the time is not going to be always there.
“I enjoy really coming to the rink every day. I enjoy competing in practices against guys and always in the games.
“I love the game.”
- Igor Eronko: Teemu Selanne to Sport-Express.ru: “It would be a great scenario to play one more season for my home team Jokerit in KHL”
- Hope Smoke: Darren Dreger: “I’m sure that St.Louis will show interest in keeping Miller” … “As a pending UFA Miller will look at what is available on the market. All along I’ve been told Miller wants a short term 3-5 years” … “Miller has ambition beyond hockey and he’s looking at getting on with things once he’s done with the game”
- Hope Smoke: Ray Ferraro: “The Blues would be able to move some of their forwards, a more complete guy, for someone who scores. Someone like Berglund” … “What would Berglund look like down the middle playing behind Nugent-Hopkins?” … Hope Smoke: Ferraro suggested Jordan Eberle going to the Oilers. Ferraro wonders if the you consider one of the Blues defenseman like Kevin Shattenkirk and Patrik Berglund for Eberle and someone else?
