On the Oilers goaltending, Jesse Puljujarvi and potential cap casualties
Mark Spector of Sportsnet: (mailbag) The Edmonton Oilers top UFA goaltender targets are St. Louis Blues Ville Husso and Toronto Maple Leafs Jack Campbell. Husso’s price may get driven up to high for the Oilers. Campbell could work well with Stuart Skinner.
Jesse Puljujarvi could get $3.5 to $4 million in salary arbitration, which would be to munch. He’s owed a $1.4 million qualifying offer. The Oilers can hope that his play continues to progress and he comes in around $2.25 million.
Oilers who could be moved to help free up some salary cap space are Warren Foegele, Zack Kassian, Tyson Barrie and Puljujarvi.
Keys to the offseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning
Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN: Looking at the keys to the offseason for the Stanley Cup Finalist Tampa Bay Lightning.
Are the Lightning going to make any major changes or just look making minor ones? They have pending UFAs in Nick Paul, Ondrej Palat and Jan Rutta.
Will they decide they need a little more depth on the blue line?
They don’t have a lot of salary cap space, so a big change is unlikely and not really needed.
Keys to the offseason for the Colorado Avalanche
Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski of ESPN: Looking at the keys to the offseason for the Stanley Cup Champions Colorado Avalanche.
The Avs have pending UFAs in Nazem Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin. Kadri, coming off a career year will be looking for a big new contract. Nichushkin can play at both ends of the rink and stepped up in the playoffs. They need to keep in mind that Nathan MacKinnon is going to get a big raise after next season. Which forward will they decide on?
Other pending UFAs include Darcy Kuemper, Andre Burakovsky and Josh Manson. Artturi Lehkonen is a pending RFA.
Avalanche GM Joe Sakic is going to have to get creative with his salary cap.