If Patrick Marleau chooses to play for a new team for the first time in his career this summer, he'll reportedly have plenty of options.
The San Jose Sharks winger - who's spent the entirety of his 19 NHL seasons with the club since being drafted second overall in 1997 - will be an unrestricted free agent as of July 1, and several teams are interested in his services, according to The Athletic's Craig Custance.
Marleau's longtime teammate Joe Thornton is also a pending UFA, and while both franchise icons expressed their desire to remain in San Jose after their first-round elimination by the Edmonton Oilers, both are drawing increased attention in the free-agent market.
Marleau will be 38 by the time the 2017-18 campaign begins, but can surely provide scoring depth wherever he ends up. In 82 games last season, he recorded 27 goals and 19 assists, and highlighted his campaign by reaching the 500-goal plateau in February.
For the first time since the 2009 offseason, the Arizona Coyotes have a head coaching vacancy, and it appears Todd Nelson will be the first one to get a crack at the job.
Prior to coaching the Griffins, Nelson was the bench boss of the Edmonton Oilers, compiling a record of 17-25-9 after taking over for Dallas Eakins 32 games into the 2014-15 season.
This was, of course, the pre-Connor McDavid Oilers, who didn't really have a chance to go anywhere, even if Scotty Bowman was behind the bench.
Nelson, a former defenseman, spent most of his playing days in the minors, totaling three NHL games played.
The sudden head coaching vacancy comes in the wake of the organization's decision to mutually agree to part ways with longtime head coach Dave Tippett.
The Coyotes and associate coach Jim Playfair have also mutually agreed to part ways, according to Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic, opening the door for the next head coach of the team to assemble his own staff.
Thornton - who turns 38 on Sunday - has been with the Sharks since the 2005-06 season during which time he has amassed the third-most points in the league, trailing only Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
The veteran center is coming off a down year that saw him tally just seven goals and 50 points, which are both his lowest totals in a full 82-game season since his rookie and sophomore seasons, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Kings also appear to be a questionable fit for Thornton given they already have Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter playing down the middle on the team's top two lines.
There is also the fact that the Kings are the Sharks' biggest rival, which would certainly leave some fans in San Jose a little sour.
The Canucks are apparently among those interested in the North Vancouver native, and he's expected to visit this week.
At first glance the hoopla surrounding Weal, 25, is a head-scratcher, considering he has a measly 37 games of NHL experience under his belt.
So why all the interest?
A third-round selection in 2010 by the Los Angeles Kings, Weal didn't get his first taste of NHL action until the 2015-16 campaign.
Weal landed with the Flyers in January 2016 as part of the Vincent Lecavalier trade, but he mostly watched as a healthy scratch as Philadelphia didn't want to risk putting him through waivers.
Weal played the majority of the 2016-17 season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, where he posted an impressive 15 goals and 47 points in 43 games, serving as the only player on the team to average more than a point per game. He got a call-up in February, recording 12 points in 23 games with the big club.
His best statistical AHL season came in 2013-14, when he recorded 70 points for the Manchester Monarchs. The following year, he put up 69 points in the regular season and 22 in the playoffs en route to a Calder Cup title. Weal was awarded the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as playoff MVP.
MVP in playoffs the year we won the Calder Cup (Not A Big Deal). Weal needs a chance. Got 1 towards the end of the year in PHI and did well. https://t.co/3WbwVeeWVr
Though Weal has dressed in under 40 career NHL games, he has shown he can thrive when given an opportunity.
During his first crack at the NHL, Weal went pointless in 14 games split between the Kings and Flyers. However, Weal averaged just 9:13 of ice time per game, playing a high of 14:04 just twice, and as little as 6:42.
But he proved what a little patience can do in his 23 games with the Flyers this season. Weal played an average of 14:18 a night and finished hot, with four goals and seven points in the final seven games.
Here's what else he accomplished at 5-on-5:
Led the Flyers with 2.29 points per game.
Finished third on the Flyers with 7.92 shots per 60 minutes.
Led the Flyers with 1.46 goals per 60 minutes.
Led the Flyers in shooting percentage with a 18.42 percent rate.
Led the team with a 55.96 percent Corsi-for rating.
Weal looks to be a budding star and it appears teams across the league have caught on. Flyers general manager Ron Hextall is reportedly doing his darnedest to re-sign him, too.
Hextall is trying hard to re-sign Jordan Weal. "He's a FA. I can't grab him by the throat" and make him re-sign. "He has choices," he said.
Pending unrestricted free-agent defenseman Andrei Markov is looking to play until he's at least 40 years of age.
The 38-year-old is looking for a two-year contract that will pay him $6 million per season, a source told Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
If a team were to meet Markov's demands, he would actually be receiving a raise. His last contract, a three-year deal, had him making $5.75 million per season.
It's unclear whether a team would be willing to give a player his age a multi-year deal, but Markov can still play. In 62 games last season he tallied 36 points, a plus-18 rating, only 16 PIMs, a Corsi For percentage of 54, all while averaging 21:50 minutes of ice time per night.
In fact, his 0.58 points per game from last season is identical to his career mark, signaling the Russian blue-liner still has plenty of gas left in the tank.
Markov has spent his entire NHL career with the Montreal Canadiens, and is just 10 regular-season games shy of 1,000.
Methot's claim to fame to this point in his career has come from two things: being the guy who got his finger chopped off by Sidney Crosby, and being Erik Karlsson's longtime defensive partner.
The latter is the reason why Klingberg should have jumped out of his seat upon hearing the news Methot was heading to Texas.
Methot was the ideal defense partner for Karlsson. He is big, strong, physical, positionally sound, great at winning puck battles down low, is a left-handed shot (Karlsson shoots right), and has little offensive ability.
Though Karlsson is obviously in a league of his own, he and Klingberg are very much alike. Both are from Sweden, love to skate the puck out of the defensive zone, love joining the rush, can make a great first pass, are all-around dynamic offensively, and both shoot right - essentially the complete opposite of Methot.
"(Methot) has proven to be a capable and steady defenseman that can play well with an offensive-minded partner."
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
Assuming Klingberg and Methot are paired together, the latter's stay-at-home mindset will allow the former to roam freely and generate offense, knowing he has a veteran, rock-solid partner backing him.
This wasn't the case for Klingberg last season, as he was most frequently paired with rookie Esa Lindell. There were certainly times when Klingberg thought twice about pinching, knowing he would have left a rookie hung out to dry had he gotten caught.
Despite the responsibility of being paired with a rookie, Klingberg - who is only 24 years old in his own right - still recorded 49 points (10th-most among NHL defensemen) and scored a career-high 13 goals.
Methot will not only serve as a security blanket for Klingberg, but he will act as mentor. Including playoffs, Methot has over 600 games of NHL experience - many of them spent exclusively alongside Karlsson. Methot can tell Klingberg "in this situation, Karlsson used to do this" or "here's how Karlsson and I would approach this scenario."
It may seem subtle, but the little things matter a lot.
With a full season alongside Methot, Klingberg should be able to regain his 58-point form from 2015-16, or perhaps even surpass that total, into the 60- or even 70-point range. He certainly has the talent, and now he has the defense partner who will allow him to be as offensively aggressive as he wants, without thinking of the repercussions that will come with it.
Down to the very last minutes leading up to the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, fans and experts alike were still wondering who the New Jersey Devils would take with the first overall pick.
Due to the elite-level potential of both Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier, pundits were divided on who would actually be taken with the top pick, ensuring that both the Devils and Philadelphia Flyers would receive a high-quality, impact player.
The fact that neither player was pegged as a bona fide No. 1 pick shouldn't really be a knock against either guy. After all, both have what it takes to have lasting NHL careers.
Here are the three prospects from the draft that will hold the most long-term value:
Nolan Patrick
Patrick immediately becomes a key piece of the Flyers' future that - due to his innate passing skills - could combine nicely with wingers Wayne Simmonds or Jakub Voracek.
He brings a lethal two-way approach to go along with a commitment to playing a 200-foot game - Patrick's potential to be a long-term quality NHLer is seemingly endless.
He's a right-shot center with size, skill, and speed.
Sprinkle in the fact that Patrick is also strong on the puck and responsible in his own end, and you are left with a player that will be plying his trade in NHL rinks for a very long time.
Cody Glass
At 6-foot-2, Glass has the size to go along with the offensive skill set to make a lasting impact on the league.
Although he is listed by NHL Central Scouting as a center, Glass offers an element of versatility to the Golden Knights, as he has experience playing all three forward positions and contributes on special teams, as well.
Listed more as a playmaker than a sniper, Glass utilizes his quick hands to dish the puck at will, racking up 62 apples in 69 games for the WHL's Portland Winterhawks last season.
Look for his name at the top of the assists category for years to come.
Nico Hischier
In addition to that sweet flow, there are a few tangible elements to Hischier's game that will have him performing on the NHL stage for the foreseeable future.
Hischier, a left-shot center, is the most offensively gifted player in the draft and his explosive talent will give opposing defensemen nightmares for years to come.
His scoring touch alone should cement his long-term value, but considering the fact that Hischier also plays with an aggressive style and has a penchant for the big stage, you have a guy with perennial All-Star potential.
The Ottawa Senators attempted to recoup their lost expansion pick, but ultimately failed to do so.
The club lost defenseman Marc Methot in last week's draft after which it became abundantly clear that the Vegas Golden Knights were looking to flip the 32-year-old for assets. Having tried to persuade the Golden Knights to lay off, but to no avail, the team gave one last attempt to reacquire Methot on Sunday and Monday, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
Led to believe the ask from the #Sens to protect Methot was a first-round pick in 2018.
On Monday, the NHL confirmed to LeBrun that teams could indeed reacquire players taken from the Golden Knights in the expansion draft just as long as the trade was not worked out beforehand.
In the end the Dallas Stars were the top bid for Methot, attaining his services in exchange for a 2020 second-round pick and 2017 goaltending prospect Dylan Ferguson.
The Senators will now be taxed with finding a replacement for the veteran shutdown defender.
