East Notes: Duchene, Peters, Foegele, Rangers

Although negotiations can’t begin until July 1st, Senators center Matt Duchene acknowledged to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that he is open to discussing a long-term contract extension to remain with the team.  Ottawa picked up Duchene in an early-season trade with Colorado and while he struggled early on, he has picked up his play in recent weeks, recording 25 points in 26 games since February 1st.

The 27-year-old carries a $6MM cap hit through 2018-19 while his salary increases to $6.5MM for next season as well.  It’s likely that he will be looking for a similar, if not bigger, deal in order to put pen to paper on an early extension with the Senators and forego his first foray into unrestricted free agency.

More from the Eastern Conference:

• Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters has an opt-out in his contract that will permit him to see what other opportunities might be out there, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (video link). This is his fourth season with Carolina and unless they pull off a stunning run and get some luck along the way over the next two weeks, he will have missed the postseason in each of those years.  Peters has one year remaining on his contract.
• Still with Carolina, the Hurricanes announced that they have recalled winger Warren Foegele from Charlotte of the AHL. The 21-year-old is in his first professional season and sits tied for seventh in the AHL in goals with 26 in 65 games with the Checkers.  This is his first recall to Carolina.
• The Rangers have promoted their top two center prospects, announcing that they’ve recalled Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil from Hartford of the AHL. The two players were New York’s first-round picks back at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.  The timing is particularly noteworthy – the Rangers have seven games left which means neither player will reach the ten game mark to burn the first year of their entry-level deals; while this will be Andersson’s first taste of the NHL, Chytil played in two games at the beginning of the season.