Talks continue to be ongoing, but so far there has been no contract agreement between the New York Islanders and their captain Anders Lee. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that he saw Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello and Lee’s agent, Neil Sheehy were having a lengthy discussion during the draft Saturday. However, with unrestricted free agents being allowed to talk to other teams Sunday, a potential deal could be even more challenging.
In fact, Newsday’s Brian Heyman reports that he spoke to Lee, who remarked that the two sides haven’t reached an agreement yet.
“I never thought it would get to this point, but I guess it’s the nature of what this week means,” Lee said.
Lee said his first choice is to remain with the Islanders, but the belief is that the two sides remain far apart when it comes to term with New York likely wanting to avoid giving the veteran too long of a contract considering he’s already 28 and the team may not want to pay big into his mid-30’s.
- Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell said that he had a “great discussion” yesterday with Sebastian Aho’s representation, according to NHL.com’s Michael Smith. The 21-year-old forward will be a restricted free agent on July 1 and the team hopes to lock Aho to a long-term deal now. He scored 30 goals and 83 points last season, both career highs and continually has shown improvement every year. “I think things are going to move along. … The good thing is I don’t think we’re terribly far apart. They want to get a deal done as much as we want to get a deal done.”
- Smith also tweets that Waddell was thrilled to walk away from the Patrick Marleau deal with a future first-round pick and said that while the rumors suggest that Carolina intends to buyout Marleau, Waddell said they intend to talk to Marleau and see if he is interested in staying with Carolina. “For us, when you can pick up assets like that, like a 1st round pick, that’s important for the future. The plan would be to meet with Patrick, talk with him and see where he’s at. If he wanted to be a Hurricane, we’d certainly love to have him.”
- Before trading for P.K. Subban earlier today, New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero said he spoke to both Taylor Hall and former Devil Brian Boyle about Subban before pulling the trigger on the deal, according to NHL.com’s Amanda Stein. Subban, who possesses a powerful personality, wanted to make sure that Subban would be a good fit as well as making sure that Hall approved of the deal, considering the Devils must convince their star player to re-sign at some point. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen also confirmed from Shero that the Nashville Predators did not retain any salaries as part of the deal.
- Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi reports that the Philadelphia Flyers haven’t gotten very far yet with restricted free agent defenseman Ivan Provorov. General manager Chuck Fletcher said that progress with Provorov is slow because the team is waiting for the market to set before signing him. However, Fletcher did admit the team is much closer to signing restricted free agent Travis Sanheim and Scott Laughton.