- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke won’t rush Matthew Lombardi back. “It’s too soon to tell,” Burke told Sun Media. “As we always do with head injuries, we’ll err on the side of caution.” Lombardi has been out since Oct. 13 2010 with a concussion.
- Kevin Allen of the USA Today: On Lombardi, “He says he is going be at training camp, and our guys believe he will,” Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke said. “He feels really good,” Burke said. “The most recent medical report we had on him is that the remaining discomfort he’s having isn’t concussion-related.” Blues forward David Perron won’t be ready for training camp but they hope he will play at some point this season. Perron has yet to train or be given clearance to go on the ice. Word is that Sidney Crosby is training and will be ready for the start of training camp. Jonas Hiller is feeling better (vertigo) and will be ready for camp. Bryce Salvador missed last season with a concussion is expected to be at camp. Predators defenseman Francis Bouillon, out since January with a concussion, had a setback recently but they hope he can attend camp. Chris Pronger hopes to be ready for the start of the regular season, but may miss start of camp. Evgeni Malkin has recovered from ACL surgery and will be ready.
- Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette: Hickey thinks the Canadiens should look at trading Andrei Kostitsyn after he made comments to a Belarus hockey site about his frustration with coach Jacques Martin.
“I can’t guess about next season,” Kostitsyn told reporter Alexander Yankovich. “My relationship with the coach is not too good.
“It wasn’t me who started to play badly,” Kostitsyn added. “It’s just that I was being put into (the) third and fourth line. I’ve tried talking to (Martin) more than once. But he doesn’t care.”
Last season he played with at least one of Gomez, Plekanec, Gionta and Cammalleri more than 80% of the time. The addition of Erik Cole and development of Max Pacioretty may bump Kostitsyn to the 3rd line. The Coyotes, Islanders and Avalanche are under the cap floor and may be interested in his $3.25 million cap hit. His brother Sergei is in Nashville who might be interested.
- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Blues coach Davis Payne is in the last year of his contract. If they are able to contend, it’s likely they’ll retain him. If the Blues fall short, questions will be raised if he should be extended or not.
- Slava Malamud via twitter: Panthers forward Sergei Shirokov said that he’s not burning his NHL bridges and would consider returning after his 3 year contract with CSKA of the KHL is done.
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News: Tom Gaglardi may be in New York trying to get through all the paperwork needed to buy the Dallas Stars. The sale my not be “any day” as noted by some people. Lawyers, lenders, the NHL and the Stars are going through paperwork as well. They are closer than they were 2 weeks ago, and noboby knows when the lawyers will be happy with everything.
