While activity around the league has quieted down lately (that should soon change with college free agency really getting set to kick off), there were still several key stories around the hockey world this past week.
Kulikov Out Eight Weeks: Winnipeg has had rough luck with injuries all season long and that continued with the announcement that defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will miss the next eight weeks after undergoing back surgery. While the 27-year-old hasn’t quite lived up to his $4.33MM cap hit this season, he has still provided the Jets with quality minutes on the third pairing and has jumped into a top-four role when called upon as well. They also got some more bad news with goalie Steve Mason suffering a knee injury that will keep him out for two-to-three weeks.
Carolina’s GM Search: What a strange week this was for Carolina and their search for a new general manager to replace Ron Francis. First, Mike Futa withdrew his name from consideration. Paul Fenton was the next to do so and then Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Guerin pulled their names out of the hat. Not surprisingly, new owner Thomas Dundon is expected to slow the search down a little bit in an effort to make things less public. Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reports (video link) that money is playing a role in some of these people bowing out, noting that the offer from Dundon is believed to be around $400K per year.
Sign-And-Trade For Tavares? Sign-and-trades aren’t particularly common in the NHL but TSN’s Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger both suggested that it could be a possibility with Islanders center John Tavares. Doing so would allow the pending unrestricted free agent to get the maximum eight-year term on his next contract (instead of seven if he signed with a new team directly) while New York would be able to recover some sort of asset for facilitating the move. It’s believed that Tavares will indicate his plans to the team in advance of the NHL Entry Draft in June which would give GM Garth Snow a bit of time to try to work some sort of trade out if their franchise player decides to move on.
Spurgeon Out Four Weeks: Minnesota was dealt a big blow with Jared Spurgeon tearing his hamstring, an injury that will keep him out of the lineup for the rest of the regular season (and four weeks in total). The 28-year-old sits third on the Wild in points by a defenseman while also logging 24:33 per night in ice time, second on the team. His absence will certainly be a tough one to absorb as Minnesota continues to battle for a playoff spot in the tightly-contested Western Conference.
Kovalchuk Wants To Return To The NHL: While he is technically retired from the NHL, Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk reiterated his intent to return to the NHL this summer while noting that he hopes to play there for several years. The 34-year-old led the KHL in scoring this season with 63 points (31-32-63) in 53 games while picking up a Gold Medal at the Olympics. As he will be 35 before the start of next season, he will be eligible for performance-based incentives in his contract as long as he signs for one year which could be intriguing to some cap-strapped teams.
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