On the Tampa Bay Lightning and Steven Stamkos …
Joe Smith: GM Steve Yzerman indicated that if a first round pick is going to be involved in a goalie trade, it would have to be done by , but there is no guarantee.
Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Lightning GM Steve Yzerman on the Steven Stamkos situation.
“I think between myself, (agent Don Meehan) and (Stamkos), we know where we’re at,” Yzerman said.
Yzerman is still hopeful they will be able to reach an agreement.
“Obviously he’s still the property of the Tampa Bay Lightning,” Yzerman said. “Until July 1. Anything is possible. No doors have been closed.”
On the Buffalo Sabres …
Mike Harrington: Sabres GM Tim Murray said: “Right now I can’t move up to the top 3 so I don’t see the point of moving to 4 or 5 or 6.” They are likely to remain at No. 8.
On the San Jose Sharks …
Pierre LeBrun: The Sharks are willing to trade the rights to James Reimer if anyone is interested. They did the same with same with Antti Niemi last year.
On the Calgary Flames …
Brian Lawton: The Flames are a strong possibility for Milan Lucic. Hearing that there is lots of interest.
Aaron Vickers of Flames.NHL: Treliving on the expansion draft and a possible flooded goalie market.
“The idea of the expansion draft … it’s a year away,” Treliving said. “That idea that now that there’s expansion everybody is dying to give you players…that’s not the case. You prepare on how it affects your team in terms of who you want to protect and where there might be issues. You’re doing that internally, and then you’re looking at every other team and where there might be issues and matches.
“Whether that means something that happens today, tomorrow or might be something that happens at the deadline or next year at this time. There’s a knowledge of what may happen and so people are trying to see if they can be aggressive, or if that’s something that’s going to take some time.
“It’s a balancing act of timing. It’s a balancing act of acquisition cost. It’s all those things. You’ve seen it in the market so far. There are deals that have been done because of expansion coming. I expect there to be more. When those happen, we’ll see.”
