Justin Williams' destination is reportedly coming into focus.
The veteran forward has trimmed his list down to three or four teams and the Washington Capitals don't appear to be on it, according to TSN's Darren Dreger.
Williams is being targeted by no fewer than 10 clubs including a few "top-level" squads, as Dreger reported earlier Thursday.
He's a pending unrestricted free agent who carried a $3.25-million cap hit this past season.
The 35-year-old spent the last two seasons with the Capitals after playing parts of seven campaigns with the Los Angeles Kings that were punctuated by Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014.
Thornton, 37, could very well go down as the best player in NHL history to never win a Stanley Cup, so he is likely looking for a team that gives him the best chance to win.
The Leafs aren't as far off as some think.
With the core of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander all on entry-level contracts, the Leafs have a rare window of competing for a Stanley Cup while their best players are making pennies.
Thornton, a native of London, Ontario (about two hours from Toronto), would join Matthews, Nazem Kadri, and Tyler Bozak, to give the Leafs arguably the best center depth in the NHL.
More importantly, Thornton would provide substantial veteran leadership for one of the youngest teams in the league.
Thornton had a down season by his standards in 2016-17, recording just seven goals and 50 points.
Nonetheless, the familiarity between the future Hall of Famer and Leafs head coach Mike Babcock could help the two sides come to an agreement. Thornton played under Babcock for Team Canada at the 1997 World Junior Championships, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
As for the Predators, they just came up two wins short of a Stanley Cup. They have an obvious need down the middle. After Ryan Johansen, their center depth consists of Calle Jarnkrok and Colton Sissons - both fine players, but neither should be playing in a top-six role.
Thornton would not only fill a positional need in Nashville, but a leadership and offensive need as well. Team captain Mike Fisher,a pending UFA, could potentially retire, and James Neal was scooped up by Vegas in the expansion draft.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have bought out the final two years of Scott Hartnell's contract, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced.
"On behalf of our organization, I want to thank Scott for his contributions to the Blue Jackets over the past three seasons and wish him well in the future," said Kekalainen. "Moves like this are never easy, but with our current organizational depth at the position it is something we believe is in the best interest of our club moving forward."
Here's a look at the financial breakdown of the buyout, per Cap Friendly.
Season
Cost
Cap Hit
2017-18
$1.25M
$1.5M
2018-19
$1.25M
$3M
2019-20
$1.25M
$1.25M
2020-21
$1.25M
$1.25M
#BlueJackets buying out Scott Hartnell saves the club $3.25M on their cap this season, giving them roughly $12.887M in projected cap space.
Hartnell spent three seasons in Columbus, recording 64 goals and 82 assists in 234 regular-season games. He failed to record a point in four playoff games this year, and was frequently scratched by head coach John Tortorella.
Following the buyout, Hartnell is now free to sign anywhere around the NHL as an unrestricted free agent.
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - As training camp opened for the New York Islanders last September, Josh Ho-Sang tweeted a picture of 22 alarm clocks with a simple message. "I made it," the winger's post read - a self-aware callback to the year before, when Ho-Sang was late for the first day of camp and immediately sent back to the Ontario Hockey League.
When dealing with off-ice issues, there are two ways to go: a player can either play the "that's not who I am" card, or he can own mistakes and move forward in a positive way. Ho-Sang, the No. 28 pick in the 2014 draft, has taken the path of positivity, and after making it to the NHL in March and notching 10 points in 21 games, he's carrying the lessons of his early experience into what could and should be a long and fruitful pro career.
"You learn every game," Ho-Sang said Wednesday at the Islanders' development camp. "I think I only played two teams twice, so I'm playing all these NHL teams for the first time, and all these players on some star-studded teams. For me, it's about getting used to that - looking across the ice and seeing Patrick Kane, Tyler Seguin, Sidney Crosby. I enjoy playing against those guys. I thrive on that, being able to compare yourself against the best players in the world. ... If you're not the best player, you always need to do something differently. If you're not Connor McDavid, putting up 100 points, leading his team to the playoffs for the first time in a long time, you need to improve. And even he's trying to get better. I don't think you can stop."
Ho-Sang turned 21 in January, a week after McDavid's 20th birthday. At the moment, McDavid has a 148-10 advantage in career points at the NHL level, not to mention the Hart Trophy. To compare the two would appear ludicrous, but for Ho-Sang, it makes sense. He was willing to take the kind of heat that comes with wearing 66, a number all but out of circulation in the NHL since Mario Lemieux retired. Of course he's going to see getting to McDavid's level as an achievable goal.
The difference between cockiness and confidence is the acknowledgment of the hard work needed to climb to such a plateau. The former is a weakness, and one that led Ho-Sang to develop a reputation as, to be completely fair about it, a kid. The latter is not only an asset, but a requisite for turning dreams into reality.
"I believe in myself," Ho-Sang said. "I don't think I need to say much more than that. If I ever get there, and people ask, 'Did you think you could get there?' I would say yes. But he's a ways away, an elite talent. But it's always fun to have someone to chase. For him, he only has to chase himself right now."
The first step on Ho-Sang's chase is getting through a full NHL season. Having already been through the drama of that first training camp, of his jersey number, of clashes with Hockey Canada earlier on, of simply being a hockey player willing to speak his mind, that may well be small potatoes. The McDavids of the world are the only ones who don't suffer through growing pains. Ho-Sang has had his.
"Oh, God, yeah, it helps," said Islanders coach Doug Weight. "I think it's important to go through and learn from it. Just the example of having a couple of bad games, and some bad things happening, and then refocusing, practicing hard, and coming out ready to play well is a sign of that maturing road that he's going down."
That maturing can be seen publicly on Ho-Sang's Twitter account. After the self-deprecating clock picture, Ho-Sang had only two tweets: a repost of a Photoshop of Michael Dal Colle on Conor McGregor's head after Dal Colle's first fight, and a video clip of a Matt Finn goal. In June, his Twitter feed has become a source of, every few days, motivation and positivity (plus a couple of shoutouts to his mom and a clip of himself in a video game trailer).
On June 10, Ho-Sang tweeted, "Everything you want to ask of life cannot be given by anyone but yourself, so don't ask period, go get it," then two days later, "Our weaknesses are what make us human, our will to transcend those obstacles is what makes us truly strong #beyourownsuperhero."
If that doesn't explain where he is, and what his outlook is, as he approaches that first full NHL season, he's more than happy to expound on it.
"I just think it's something you have to carry with you, especially in a sport where people are watching you and constantly trying to judge you for what you do in a game or in a minute or based on a day," Ho-Sang said. "I think it's important to remind yourself of who you are, and I think it's important to stay grounded in terms of understanding there is more going on outside yourself. You may have personal problems, and you may have things going on, on a regular basis, but as long as you can put your head down and keep fighting through those, try to find the bright side, more often than not, I find that will help you maintain your happiness."
As hockey fans sift through poorly translated rumors and vague reports out of Russia surrounding free-agent forward Ilya Kovalchuk, a much-less renowned former NHL player has made his intentions for the 2017-18 hockey season fully known.
Multiple teams have called on Stephane Da Costa. He 100% intends on playing in the NHL next season. Was in KHL last 3 years.
A once hyped NCAA free agent out of Merrimack College, Stephane Da Costa was originally signed by the Ottawa Senators at the end of the 2010-11 season. He went on to play parts of four NHL seasons and parts of three AHL campaigns with the Senators' organization. He played just 47 NHL games from the spring of 2011 through the end of the 2013-14 season, scoring seven goals and adding four assists on 75 shots in 11:36 of ice time per game.
Now 27 years old, Da Costa has spent his past three seasons with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, playing a total of 94 regular-season games and 39 playoff games. He put up totals of 96 and 28 points, respectively.
At just 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, Da Costa is best suited for an offense-first role within a team's top-six or top-nine forward grouping. It was an opportunity never really given to him by the Senators, even after he put up 90 points in 67 career games at the NCAA level.
With the growing favoritism toward analytic play in the NHL, Da Costa is likely to receive a better opportunity this time around, after re-demonstrating his offensive prowess. Through his 47 NHL games, he played at a Corsi For percentage of 55.8.
A minus-11 rating which largely led to his poor perception, was at the fault of a disastrous 93.1 PDO, when league average is viewed at approximately 100. Ottawa's goaltending at the time posted a save percentage of just 86.4 percent at 5-on-5 when Da Costa was on the ice.
Da Costa will need an opportunity from a patient team with room up front and no expectations for this upcoming season for his second crack at the NHL.
Pouliot, 30, tallied just 14 points in 67 games for the Oilers in 2016-17 and comes with a cap hit of $4 million per year over the next two seasons.
It's highly unlikely any team would claim Pouliot on waivers, so the impending buyout will cost the Oilers $1.33 million in cap space per year through the 2020-21 season, per Cap Friendly.
#Oilers buying out Benoit Pouliot saves the club $2.66M against their cap this season, giving them roughly $18.953M in projected cap space.
Pouliot, a former fourth overall pick for the Minnesota Wild, scored a career-high 19 goals in 58 games with the Oilers on the first year of his deal. He backed that up with 14 goals in 55 games in 2015-16, but was downright terrible this past year, scoring just eight times in 67 games, and recording more giveaways than takeaways for the first time in his Oilers career.
After back-to-back years of deep playoff runs for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team suffered a setback in 2016-17 by missing the playoffs for the first time in four seasons. And though the team is laden with talent, general manager Steve Yzerman refuses to overlook last season due to previous success.
"We're in a different spot today than a year ago. Because a year ago, we were coming off Game 7 of the conference final, and that was coming off reaching the Stanley Cup final," Yzerman said, according to Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times. "This year we didn't make the playoffs. So let's take a step back here and let's not talk about going for it here in June when we just missed the playoffs."
It's a very reserved mentality for the man in charge of a team that finished the 2016-17 regular season with 94 points, the same amount as the Western Conference champion Nashville Predators, but one point shy of the amount needed to qualify for the Eastern Conference's second season.
Yzerman isn't letting himself, his players, or the team's fan base rest on past laurels, however, viewing last season as a disappointment, and refusing to blame the lost campaign on the knee injury which limited captain Steven Stamkos to just 17 games.
"We're a better team with Stamkos, obviously. ...
"We definitely can look at areas where we need to improve with the players we did have on the ice,'' Yzerman added.
Yzerman isn't done his summer work and remains focused on making the Lightning a contender again in 2017-18 and for the long term, saying "I think it's going to be good for a long time.''
While the Predators may have demonstrated once again that teams need only to qualify for the postseason by the slimmest of margins in order to have a shot at lifting the Stanley Cup, Yzerman seems intent on not leaving the fate of his team in the hands of the competition.
"Should have been there, but we weren't,'' Yzerman said.
Daley, 33, has won back-to-back Stanley Cups as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. This past season, he registered 19 points in 56 games with a 46.1 Corsi For percentage while averaging 20:23 minutes per night. He added five points in 21 playoff games.
In Boston, Daley would help stabilize the left side of the Bruins' defense corps. Torey Krug is entering his prime, but Zdeno Chara is 40 years old and is on the last year of his contract. Their right side is deep with youngsters Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo and veterans Kevan Miller and Adam McQuaid.
In Detroit, Daley would add to an aging defense unit featuring 31-year-old Mike Green, 36-year-old Niklas Kronwall, and 33-year-old Jonathan Ericsson. Danny DeKeyser, 27, is also locked up for five years with a cap hit of $5 million per season.
Daley had a cap hit of $3.3 million per year in his previous deal, but could potentially see a raise given that comparable D-men Brendan Smith and Kris Russell have recently signed contracts worth $4 million or more per season.
The Edmonton Oilers have announced that team legend Dave Semenko died "after a short, but courageous battle with cancer."
From the team:
Dave will be remembered as a fierce competitor, loyal teammate, fan favourite and dear friend to so many. His legendary toughness on the ice is surpassed only by his kindness and caring for others, and his equally legendary wit and sense of humour.
Our hearts go out to Dave's family and many friends.
Once an Oiler, Always an Oiler
Semenko appeared in 575 NHL games for the Oilers back in the 1980s, registering 65 goals, 88 assists, and a whopping 1,175 minutes in penalties while protecting Edmonton's crop of superstar talent and winning two Stanley Cups.
