Larry Brooks of the NY Post: The New York Rangers had been trying to trade Vladislav Namestnikov since last year’s trade deadline and had been offering to retain $1 to $2 million.
After moving Namestnikov to the Ottawa Senators, the Rangers salary cap space went from around $1.4 to over $4.6 million. This is important for the Rangers as they face potentially $4 million in entry-level performance bonuses.
The Rangers do have a lot more flexibility for later in the season if need be, but they still need to be conservative. They shouldn’t be looking to throw money at a stop-game, expensive second-line center.
The Rangers have Mika Zibanejad in the third year of his five-year deal at a $5.35 million cap hit. He’ll be a free agent in 2022 and could cost up to $9 million per.
Seattle timeframe for team name and head coach
TSN: Pierre LeBrun on TSN on when Seattle will name the team, and when they could name their first-ever NHL head coach.
“Potentially a year later, so January. 2021 is the opening of the window when GM Ron Francis says he’s looking to name a head coach. Really it depends on the candidates that are available at that time, but sometime between January 2021 and June 2021 is when he would like to name the first coach in the franchise history. “
The NHL and the Olympics
TSN: LeBrun and Darren Dreger on NHL not wanting to go to the Olympics and the NHLPA wanting to go.
“LeBrun: Yeah and the third component is the IOC, which was really to blame originally as to why it didn’t happen the last time around, they didn’t want to pay for travel or insurance. Well, last week the NHL, led by Bill Daily visited the IOC in Switzerland. It was the first meeting in a while, informal maybe but nevertheless Thomas Bach the president meeting with Bill Daily; we’ll see where it goes.
Dreger: Yeah and actually there is a fourth element and that’s the IIHF. The IIHF meetings are next month and the belief is the European hockey federations are going to start putting the heat on René Fasel to start putting the heat on IOC to get something done.”