Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen: The writing is already on the wall that Jonathan Cheechoo will be bought out by the Ottawa Senators. The 2 week buyout period begins Tuesday, where teams can buyout the contracts at 2/3 their value, and payable over 2x the amount of years left on the contract. Cheechoo’s $3.5 million for next season would turn out to be $1,165,500 cap hit for the next 2 seasons.
George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press: Red Wings GM Ken Holland was on the “NHL Live” radio program, and said they are looking towards drafting a forward with their 21st overall pick at this years NHL Draft. “We’ve got some young defensemen coming,” Holland said. “Probably, ideally, you’d like to find some forwards with some scoring touch. Again, if there’s a defenseman there that we feel has fallen, we’ll take him.” Holland also talked about the Bertuzzi contract talks and he didn’t seem to optomistic as the numbers may not fit. “Obviously, in a cap world, the situation we’re in, we don’t have a ton of money. Todd had a great year for us, and I’m sure he’s gonna have some decisions to make come July 1. We’ll continue to talk to him. We’d like to have him back, but obviously, there’s gotta be a fit financially for the player and for us. Talks are ongoing. We’ll see where they go.”
Ansar Khan of MLive: The Wings re-signed Dman Doug Janik for 2 years (1st year is 2-way, 2nd year is 1-way). Jason Williams was informed yesterday that he won’t be back. The Wings still would like to add 1 more Dman, Andreas Lilja or another cheap Dman. They are still unsure if they are going to offer a contract to Kirk Maltby. Ole-Kristian Tollefsen will get a qualifying offer.
The Calgary Herald: Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter confirmed on The Fan 960, that Vesa Toskala won’t be back the Flames, so they’ll be looking for a backup to lessen the load of Miikka Kiprusoff. Kiprusoff has played over 73 games in each of the last 5 seasons. The Flames are in preliminary negotiations with UFA Eric Nystrom and RFA Ian White.
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The St. Louis Blues and UFA goalie Chris Mason have begun talks. It will come to dollars and term length if a deal can be done or not. Mason could be looking for upwards of $4 million.
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Boston Bruins assistant coach Craig Ramsay was interviewed by the Atlanta Thrashers for the head coaching. The Thrashers are also interested in John Torchetti
