- Dan O’Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo left in the 2nd period after being hit face first into the boards by Dwight King. He’ll be evaluated over tonight and an update should be given today.
- Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider: From officiating supervisor Kay Whitmore on King’s hit:
Question: As far as the aftermath, Pietrangelo being cut, did that warrant a five-minute major?
WHITMORE: “In these situations, if a player is cut to the face, and it’s visible right away, instantly, they’ll call a major … in most cases. In this case, they didn’t see the cut, the small cut, under his chin from what I’ve been told until up to a minute or so after when they were over by the bench. So it was a delay, a period of time that went by, and it’s tough for them to go over and say, ‘It’s a major now’ … because they didn’t see it after the scrum. He got off the ice. There was no visible blood. If it was running down his forehead or his cheek, it’s automatic. It’s a major game-misconduct. In this instance, they didn’t see it initially right away. They didn’t see the blood running down his chin, in his beard … one of those things.”
- David Staple of the Edmonton Journal: Should the Oilers trade the 1st overall pick for Jordan Staal? (Poll: 141-No, 80-Yes) Speculation out there is that Staal could become available for the right price. Staple’s:
Staal is a big, strong and fairly aggressive two-way centre, still in his prime, capable of playing the toughest minutes. He won’t come cheap, but he’ll likely be worth the money over the next six or seven years if he can stay healthy.
He is exactly the kind of player the Oilers need at centre, giving the team an excellent one-two punch with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. While the Oilers have been a weak team, the thought of playing with wingers like Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ales Hemsky might be enticing for Staal. He’d certainly have a bigger role here.
- Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune: The Lightning need to acquire a long-term goalie this offseason. They were acquiring assets in hope that they could do a deal with the Canucks for Cory Schneider, but now it appears that Schneider is staying. Roberto Luongo is expected to submit a list to Canucks with teams he’d be willing to accept a trade too, and the Lightning are expected to be on it. 10 years left on his deal may be too much of the Lightning, especially with Vinny Lecavalier’s contract, unless he’s apart of the deal. So their may not be a match for the Lightning and Canucks. Other possibilities could be: Tim Thomas (1 year left on contract), Tomas Vokoun (UFA), Jonathan Bernier, Josh Harding, Anders Lindback and Riku Helenius.
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Senators GM Bryan Murray said they need to add a defenseman and maybe a top 6 forward to play with Kyle Turris.
“Our goaltending was really solid, we’ve got depth there, no question some decisions have to be made on the blueline. Offensively on the blueline, we’re really good,” said Murray. “We have to find out if one of these (UFAs) we have will come back and be solid or do we have to go get another guy? Up front, we’re always looking for somebody to step in and score goals. That line with (captain Daniel Alfredsson) played with Turris, if we had one more guy that could score consistently or be a 20-to-25 goal scorer would make our team different.”
Erik Karlsson may be looking for a deal in the $6.5-7.5 million per season range.
“I’m not worried about Erik. We’ll get a deal done. It’s not going to be hurried up by any means,” he said. “We’ll talk over the next few weeks, probably to his agent to start. There’s no immediate demand. We’re not playing for awhile.”
- Ian Mendes via twitter: Senators GM Bryan Murray said he won’t automatically qualify all of their RFAs. Bruce Garrioch via twitter: Murray also said that he may go shopping on July 1st to speed up the process of getting better.
- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: Red Wings Danny Cleary will under knee surgery this week. He now wishes he had surgery on it last November is it got progressively worse over the season. The surgery will fix “significant issues — tears, loose cartilage, bone-on-bone, lot of fluid. The buildup of fluid was a major issue. I’m hoping to get it resolved.”
- Lisa Halverstadt of the Arizona Republic: Glendale’s chief negotiator told City Council last week that any deal to keep the Coyotes in Glendale will require millions of taxpayers money each year, and taking on the costs of managing the Jobing.com arena. It’s not the type of deal Glendale had envisioned when they built the arena.
- Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: If the Maple Leafs and Cancuks talk about Roberto Luongo, and the Canucks had to take back a bad contract, they may rather have Matthew Lombardi over Mike Komisarek. Lou Lamoriello told Simmons that Zach Parise isn’t going anywhere, but others think he’ll sign with another team that has a chance at the cup.
