On the Washington Capitals …
Isabelle Khurshudyan: KHL teams are talking to both Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but doesn’t expect much to come of it. It it still really early in the offseason.
Slava Malamud: The president of CSKA says that there are three Russian NHL players that they want to sign – including Orlov – who want to come back: “It’s hard there. More games, more injuries”
On the Florida Panthers …
Harvey Fialkov: Panthers GM Dale Tallon has spoken with the agent for Jaromir Jagr, but there is nothing new to report.
On the Vegas Golden Knights …
Darren Dreger: The Golden Knights are still a couple weeks away from naming their assistant coaches. It is sounding like Mike Kelly will be joining the team.
On the Minnesota Wild …
Michael Russo of the Star Tribune: A couple days ago Russo spoke with Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.
There was a twitter rumors that 2015 5th round pick Kirill Kaprizov was close to signing a long-term KHL deal. Fletcher didn’t believe the rumors and said “that’d be news to me.” The Wild have been in contact with Kaprizov’s agent the past few weeks and wasn’t away of anything. He’s got a year left on his contract and his interested in playing in the NHL in 2018-19. Kaprizov only wants to play in the NHL and not the AHL.
On how the Wild’s offseason is progressing.
“We have a lot of ideas, but there’s some challenges obviously and we’re still talking to other teams and speaking to Vegas, and I think we have a better idea of what’s possible,” Fletcher said. “Again, there’s only so much you can control. We’ll just continue the conversations and see how things play out.”
Over the next few weeks Fletcher plans on meeting with the agents for RFAs Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter.
There will be trade rumors surrounding the Wild because of their salary cap situation and the expansion draft.
Fletcher denied the report that former Sabres GM Tim Murray could join the Wild in some capacity as of right now.
