Nichols' Notes
/Related: Nichols' Notes (June 17)
Related: Trade Watch: Jason Spezza Edition
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Rick Gosselin of DallasNews.com writes about the emergence of Stars defensive prospect Patrik Nemeth in the AHL playoffs. The overriding theme of the article though, is how critical that period is for development.
GM Jim Nill knows from his days with the Detroit Red Wings - an organization that develops prospects perhaps better than any franchise in the league.
“Playoff hockey in the American League is tough hockey,” Nill said. “It’s tough travel — three games in four nights. It’s a grind. There have been high-pressure games, overtime games, Game 7s. It’s been great for his development — and a lot of others.”
He continued.
“The light bulb goes on for them,” Nill said. “You have to go through these wars to understand how hard it is. Now they understand the battles. It’s like anything in life — until you do it, you don’t know what it feels like.
“Now they know what it’s like, and they had success at it. That’s the key.”
RFA Chris Tanev's camp hasn't heard from the new management team of the Vancouver Canucks, according to The Province's Jim Jamieson. As the article points out, not really a big deal for an RFA at this point - especially given all of the changes that have gone on in Vancouver and what's coming up on the NHL calendar.
The Toronto Sun's Steve Buffery elicited a number of thoughts from Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis.
He said "we're hopeful" of re-signing Dave Bolland, but "there's work to do for sure."
On trades, Nonis said "there’s talking but there’s nothing right now that we’re close to doing."
On potentially moving up in the draft, Nonis indicated "We’ve talked to a couple of teams and shared ideas of what would make sense right now. Right now we haven’t found anything that does..."
On moving Jake Gardiner to forward because they also have Morgan Rielly on the blueline: "He was a forward, he started as a forward. He played more of his formative years as a forward. There’s been some talk of it, but I think he gives us an element at the back end that would be hard to replace. He can skate the puck out, pretty good on the power play. So I think right now, we would keep him back there."
Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving updates The Herald's Kristen Odland on the Michael Cammalleri situation. Sort of.
“No real update,” Treliving said. “We’re continuing to talk to see if there’s a deal there and if there is, we’ll announce it and if there’s not, we won’t. Not a whole lot to report. We’re continuing to see if there’s a deal there that makes sense.”
The Flames also flew in Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Aaron Ekblad for private interviews ahead of the draft. Calgary has the No. 4 pick overall.
Darcy Tucker's 2008 buyout from then Toronto Maple Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher is finally wrapped up, according to The Star's Mark Zwolinski, who caught up with the retired player. Tucker formed Turning Point Sports Management when he hung them up in 2010 with agent Carlos Sosa.
“The more I’m on this side of it, the more I see the business side of it,” said Tucker. “There’s players putting the product on the ice and management and ownership have a job to do to move the club forward. I don’t look at it any other way. . . . Cliff made an educated decision at the time, and it worked out quite decent for me and my family.”
The Toronto Sun's Lance Hornsby posits the Leafs are interested in UFA Dan Boyle, but likely not beyond a one-year deal.
Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland tells Ansar Khan with Michigan Live that, as expected, UFA Todd Bertuzzi will not be offered a contract by the team.
The Tribune-Review's Rob Rossi has an update on the Pittsburgh Penguins' coaching search, and at the end there's a note that initial conversations are underway with the team's UFAs. GM Jim Rutherford indicated he should know which of the 11 the team will try to sign by early next week.
The Quotable Darryl Sutter, 2014: Part 1... via LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen.
New York Islanders GM Garth Snow tells Pierre LeBrun he's shopping Dan Boyle's rights. Boyle's agent says they haven't "closed the door" on talking to the Isles though. Snow also tells LeBrun it looks like Evgeni Nabokov is headed to free agency.
Also in that Rumblings Blog: Los Angeles Kings have reached out to Marian Gaborik's camp about a contract. Andrei Markov's agent has "no news" on a contract with the Montreal Canadiens and doesn't expect anything to happen anytime soon.
Nashville Predators GM David Poile was asked by The Tennessean's Josh Cooper about Paul Gaustad's future with the team. The center has two more seasons left on his four-year deal.
"Paul does what he does," said Poile. "He's a checking center, best in the league at face offs and penalty killing. To me this is the good and bad news. Paul Gaustad is way more effective when our team has a lead, way more effective on our team as a shut down guy," Poile said. "Give us the leads in the third period and the leads out of the gate and I think his role is better."
The Post-Gazette's Dave Molinari says the Pittsburgh Penguins will be qualifying all five RFAs: Brandon Sutter, Simon Despres, Jayson Megna, Philip Samuelsson, and Bobby Farnham.
Jim Rutherford, Jason Botteril, Bill Guerin and Jason Karmanos have, when they haven't been interviewing coaching candidates, talking about the roster to get ready for possible trades and free agency.
The Colorado Avalanche will hold a press conference with Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic on Thursday, where Denver Post writer Adrian Dater supposes a prime topic could be the seemingly frosty relationship between the team and Ryan O'Reilly.
Do the Winnipeg Jets want to trade Evander Kane? Free Press writer Gary Lawless believes the answer seems to be no.