John Vogl of the Buffalo News reports that the firing of Tim Murray has already affected the Sabres expansion draft plans, as the outgoing GM was in talks with Vegas about a deal to have them select a certain player, or at least not select a certain player. Vogl writes that he will now have to wait to reach out to Murray’s replacement to see if the deal is still in the works.
The Sabres aren’t in terrible shape for the draft, though will likely have to expose one of Johan Larsson or William Carrier up front. The deal could have easily been something like Vegas agreeing to take Matt Moulson off their hands, but we perhaps will never know what Murray had tried to accomplish before being jettisoned earlier this month.
- Scott Powers of The Athletic details the trouble the Blackhawks will find themselves in due to the various no-movement/trade clauses that have been handed out in Chicago. While everyone expects players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane to receive them, Artem Anisimov was given one this year while a partial NTC kicks in for Marcus Kruger next season. For a team that needs to free up some cap space this summer, the clauses will be another sticking point.
- The New York Islanders have announced that they will have a new ECHL affiliate next season called the Worcester Railers HC. The Railers are the first ever ECHL team based in Massachusetts, as Worcester is about 50 miles west of Boston. That city of course had the Worcester Sharks in the AHL for many years before they moved to San Jose and became the Barracuda two years ago.