NHL News and Notes: Recent Signings, John Tavares, and David Perron
John Tavares signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs hasn't a slam dunk like many had thought.
Recent Signings

Tracey Myers: The Chicago Blackhawks have signed Carl Dahlstrom to a two-year contract with an $850,000 AAV.

Adam Vingan: The Nashville Predators have signed Dante Fabbro to a three-year entry-level contract.

Lance Lysowski: The Buffalo Sabres have signed Casey Fitzgerald to a two-year entry-level contract. He’ll go to Rochester (AHL) on a tryout.

Frank Seravalli: The Philadelphia Flyers have signed Michael Raffl to a two-year contract with a $1.6 million AAV.

Marisa Ingemi: The Boston Bruins have signed Paul Carey to a two-year, two-way contract.

Brett Cyrgalis: The New York Islanders have signed Bobo Carpenter to a two-year entry-level deal that will kick in next season.

It wasn’t a slam dunk for Tavares and the Maple Leafs

TSN: Darren Dreger was on TSN 1050 and said that John Tavares signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs last offseason wasn’t a slam dunk like many had thought.

“There was an interesting back and forth between John Tavares, Pat Brisson and, obviously, the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Dreger told First Up on TSN Radio 1050 Toronto. “I think Tavares initially wanted one year at $15 million. Just a one-year deal from Toronto, ‘Let’s see if it works or not,’ – that didn’t happen. Then they went back and I feel like Toronto offered something around $9.5 or $10 million. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. And then, finally, Tavares stepped in to the negotiation and basically told Kyle Dubas, ‘Look, I’ll come play for $11 million but I’m not taking less than that. So if there’s a deal to be made, then let’s get it done. Otherwise, I’m going back to the Islanders.’

“So it wasn’t as slam dunk as many of us thought it was on July 1 when it was signed.”

Perron on his concussions

Lou Korac on In the Slot: St. Louis Blues forward David Perron is back playing after suffering a concussion that caused him to miss 24 games. His last one may have him rethinking things as it’s not getting easier.

“I don’t think you ever get to that situation where you’re like that mostly when they linger,” Perron said. “Last year I had one and I was out 10 days. It’s pretty good, because you start feeling pretty good right away. Other situations like this year … at the end of the day, a lot of things have changed over the years where you can skate, you can activate and it’s good for your mental side of things to keep doing what you’re doing and you’re not going to distance yourself from everything and obviously you don’t feel a part of the team. There’s so many things that are hard mentally. You feel different as a person almost. It’s not good. It’s never fun to go through and I really, really hope — knock on wood — that it never happens again just because I don’t know how many more times I can go through this.”