Morning Notes: Boughner, Fowler, Colorado

The Florida Panthers will interview Bob Boughner for their vacant head coaching position according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN. The team was given permission to talk to Boughner weeks ago, but will hold the interview at some point this week. The Panthers have been linked to Michel Therrien and Jim Montgomery in the past as well as assistants who may be still working in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

One of those would likely be Nashville Predators assistant Phil Housley, who is off to the finals to face the winner of the Pittsburgh-Ottawa series. It will be interesting to see if Florida will wait for the end of the playoffs to make a decision, as that would come just a few days before expansion and entry draft decisions would have to be made. While the head coach doesn’t make any of these decisions by himself, he’s often consulted and sometimes attends the scouting combine with the front office staff.

• In a Tuesday hit with the NHL Network, Elliotte Friedman reported that GMs around the league have told him they think Cam Fowler would command a $56MM price tag should he get to free agency in 2018. That would pay him $8MM per season over seven years, a number which only two defensemen—P.K. Subban and the newly extended Brent Burns—currently hit. Perhaps Friedman meant that he would earn $7MM over eight years, but the only team who can sign him that long is currently the Ducks (though his rights could be traded like Keith Yandle last summer). Still, it is a huge number that would put him in the top-10 in salaries among defensemen. He’s eligible for extension on July 1st as he heads into the final year of his current contract.
• The Colorado Avalanche made changes to their coaching staff yesterday when they announced that Francois Allaire, Dave Farrish and Tim Army would not return for 2017-18. Friedman is hearing that Finnish goalie coach Jussi Parkilla is in the mix to replace him, while Michael Russo of the Star Tribune heard yesterday that former NHL goaltender Dwayne Roloson has already interviewed for the position. Should the team bring in Parkilla, it would be a clear sign that Semyon Varlamov is the choice in net going forward for the Avs, as Friedman reports the two are close. As we discussed on Monday, exposing Calvin Pickard is one of the decisions the team has to face going into the expansion draft.