Will the Maple Leafs have to move someone at some point?
Amar Basi: Pierre McGuire on the Toronto Maple Leafs: They know they are going to be in salary cap purgatory starting next year, it is going to be amazingly messy there. I don’t know how they are going to figure it all out. They are probably going to have to move somebody at some point.”
Shore heading to the KHL
Igor Eronko: Source is saying that forward Nick Shore is close to signing a contract with Magnitogorsk Metallurg in the KHL.
Friedman on the Flames, Canucks, Salary Cap, Maple Leafs, Panarin, and the Flyers
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: The Calgary Flames may not be interested in trading 22-year old forward Sam Bennett. Among the teams that have contacted the Flames about Bennett the past few years include the Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler does not want to leave Vancouver. The Lightning were interested in him last season. Teams will be interested in him as a rental. He could return to Vancouver next year.
The NHL’s early estimates for next year’s salary cap ceiling could be between $81.4 million and $85.4 million. The first number is with no inflator and the second with the full five percent inflator. This season the NHLPA used a 1.25 percent inflator.
Auston Matthews next deal is going to be more than John Tavares‘ $11 million per season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs likely wouldn’t want to do a five-year deal with William Nylander as he’d be a UFA at the end of that deal. Maybe a six-year deal would work. The sides may have looked at a three or four-year deal as well, but there remains a gap in salary. adds that there also may not be any easy trades for the Maple Leafs to make.
Artemi Panarin could follow the John Tavares route to free agency.
The Philadelphia Flyers are saying they want to have Wayne Simmonds beyond this season, and he’s saying he’d like to stay.
“I’m going to let my agent (Eustace King) handle that,” Simmonds says.
