East Notes: Stolarz, Mateychuk, Ruutu

Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz has made it known that he doesn’t want to work on a contract extension in-season, meaning the time to get a new deal in place is running out.  Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports (video link) that the netminder’s camp is looking at recent five-year deals for Kevin Lankinen ($4.5MM) and Karel Vejmelka ($4.75MM) as potential comparables while Toronto’s preference is to do something shorter term.  Stolarz is coming off a stellar season that saw him post a 2.14 GAA and a .926 SV% in 34 games but even though he’s 31, he has just 142 career NHL games under his belt and has never played more than those 34 games in a single season.  That makes finding legitimate comparable players a little trickier but regardless of that, he’s well on his way to a big raise on the $2.5MM he’ll make this season.

Elsewhere in the East:

• Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk has been dealing with a groin issue since the start of training camp and has yet to suit up in the preseason. However, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that the blueliner skated today and if all goes well, he could be cleared for contact on Monday.  Mateychuk got off to a strong start with AHL Cleveland last season and after being recalled, he was up the rest of the way, getting into 45 games where he had 13 points, earning a spot on the All-Rookie team.
• The Sabres have hired former NHL winger Jarkko Ruutu in a still-to-be-defined capacity, notes Helsingin Sanomat’s Juuso Savilaakso. Ruutu had been working with Columbus in a variety of roles since 2015 but his contract expired this summer.  It’s likely that Buffalo’s new senior advisor Jarmo Kekalainen had a big role in this hiring, having been the one to originally hire Ruutu to begin his post-playing career a decade ago.