Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Penguins GM Ray Shero on Jordan Staal, he isn’t available.
“You can’t have it both ways,” he said. “I can’t try to negotiate a contract with Jordan and a trade with another team at the same time. It doesn’t work that way. We don’t want to trade Jordan. We think we can sign him, and we’re going to try.”
“He told me he likes it here,” Shero said. “Told me he wants to stay, that he likes Pittsburgh and likes being a Penguin.”
“People read the newspapers and so maybe they think he’s available,” Shero said. “That stuff is all speculation. I have made it clear to every team that has asked. I don’t want to trade Jordan. I’m not listening to offers. I want Jordan here. I want him here for a long time, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
Dave Molinari via twitter: Penguins GM Shero said there is no deadline for getting new deals for Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby.
Dave Molinari via twitter: Shero confirms that he may trade a defenseman or 2 before the start of next season. He wouldn’t say if he’s asked anyone to waive a no-trade clause.
Rumours swirling ahead of NHL Draft
Darren Dreger via twitter: The Red Wings have re-signed Darren Helm to a 4 year, $8.5 million deal. Capgeek via twitter: The Red Wings now have 19 players under contract with $24.1 million in cap space.
Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun: The Canucks have sent qualifying offers to RFAs Cory Schneider, Eddie Lack and Dale Weise. June 25th is the deadline for qualifying offers. RFAs who haven’t received qualifying offers yet: Marc-Andre Gragnani, Mike Duco, Victor Oreskovich and Ryan Parent.
Mark Stepneski via twitter: The Stars have extended qualifying offers to Jamie Benn and Philip Larsen.
Darren Dreger via twitter: Teams needing goalie help should pay attention to Ondrej Pavelec negotiations with Winnipeg. Pavelec is a RFA and has a big offer from the KHL. It will take $4 million per on a multi-year deal. Jets only options are to pay him or trade him.
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Even with the re-signing of Barret Jackman, the Blues are looking to add another defenseman.
“We want to find a top-four defenseman,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “If we could add one player that we feel really comfortable about being in the four, then we really feel good about our group.
“When I view a top-four player, it’s someone that’s a 5-on-5 player obviously and potentially touch both ends of the special teams.”
“To say that you want to find a player to play with Petro … Petro can play with anybody,” Armstrong said.
“I think Petro could move to the left and play with (Shattenkirk).”
“Whoever we find there has to be a player that can help him move the puck,” Hitchcock said.
“Their ability to exit the zone quickly is going to be really important.”
Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun: Koshan lists the top 5 players that could be traded: Rick Nash, Roberto Luongo, Jordan Staal, Luke Schenn and Patrick Kane.
Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer: The Hurricanes are trying to make a trade this week without giving up any of their core. Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford on if they can bring in a top-tier player:
“I really don’t have a good read on it,” Rutherford said. “It’s not like a trade in the middle of the year where there are only a couple of teams trying. There are a lot of teams trying to make changes, so it’s hard to read when anything can happen.
“I do know we’re trying as hard as we ever have at this point to be involved in acquiring a top player.”
“I’ve felt all along we might have to go the trade route to improve our team,” Rutherford said. “We’re in the mix in a lot of conversations.”
The Hurricanes appear to be one of the teams interested in Rick Nash. They have the 8th overall pick, but will not move Eric Staal, Jeff Skinner, Cam Ward, Brandon Sutter or Justin Faulk in any deal.
Eric Stephens of the OC Register: Ducks GM Bob Murray said there is “nothing new” when asked about Justin Schultz. He later added on the situation:
“Yeah, that’s a sore spot,” Murray said in the interview, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve drafted fairly well the last few years … We rebuilt and you have a young man like Justin [Schultz] coming along who gave us every indication he wanted to play for us.
“There’s a spot there for him on the right point on that blue line. You mention the weaknesses. Our power play has been horrible. And Justin is very good at that. So it’s a huge disappointment. You just can’t replace it. You counted on it.
“…There’s a loophole in the CBA. Some things you just don’t understand. You move on. That’s the way it is.”
“We’ve tried everything,” Murray told the group. ”We’ve offered him everything we could have. This is not a money situation because we actually offered Justin the day before we played Calgary [in the last game of the season].
Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: 5 players that the Maple Leafs could be interested in drafting at #5. Mikhail Grigorenko, Filip Forsberg, Matthew Dumba, Jacob Trouba and Radek Faksa.
Team 1200 Ottawa: Rumors out of New York are that the Rangers are aggressively shopping center Brandon Dubinsky.
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: Sabres GM Darcy Regier:
“We are very active as it relates to finding ways to improve our hockey team,” Regier said during the team’s draft preview gathering with reporters. “Some of the names you hear that are out there, we’ve had conversations with those teams. I think it’s way too early to know whether or not anything will happen. There are a lot of teams like us in similar positions.”
“More calls have gone out than I’ve been receiving but that doesn’t mean it won’t change,” Regier said.
“The tendency is for this thing to ramp up as you approach the draft and when you get on the floor, it gets a little crazier.”
“There’s some obvious guys we don’t have any interest in talking about right now and you can figure out who they are. But I make it a practice to call teams and ask them for players that I assume they’re not willing to trade, nor do they want to trade. And other GMs do the same with me.
“You let them know if they change their mind to please give me a call and I certainly do a lot more of that now than I used to.”