The Boston Bruins and David Pastrnak are discussing an eight-year contract as they attempt to finally reach a new deal.

"We are now discussing an eight-year max term to see if we can find some common ground," Pastrnak's agent, J.P. Barry, said, according to Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.

The news doesn't come as much of a surprise as Barry said last week that such a deal was his camp's intention. Further, Pastrnak was using the eight-year, $68-million deal signed by Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl as a comparison in contract talks, TSN's Darren Dreger reported Tuesday.

"They know our position on the current marketplace for elite young forwards," Barry said, "and we will continue our negotiations again (Wednesday)."

The recent reports are a sign that progress is being made. Last week, Bruins president Cam Neely was candid, saying there had been little dialogue between the parties.

As if there needed to be another reason to get a deal done soon, training camps open up in one week.

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Put Nazem Kadri atop the list of Maple Leafs players excited by the club's offseason free agent acquisition Patrick Marleau.

"It's going to be great," Kadri said of having the 19-year NHL veteran on the team, according to Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star. "Experience is the No. 1 thing we need. It builds confidence in those high, stressful games. Patty is going to bring that to us. He's going to be a leader."

The 26-year-old Kadri was one of the more senior members on a youthful, budding Maple Leafs team a year ago. Adding a grizzled vet like Marleau will surely be quite refreshing for players like Kadri, who were relied upon for leadership despite being relatively young players themselves.

Marleau has played just about every role possible in his career. There are few things he hasn't seen or experienced.

He's played both center and wing. He's been counted on as a primary scorer in his heyday, and he's been used as a secondary contributor in recent years. His solid two-way game has allowed coaches to use him in a checking role. He was even the Sharks' captain for parts of five seasons. He's played in 177 playoff games, including six Stanley Cup Final games.

Furthermore, Marleau has played 622 consecutive regular season games, and hasn't played less than 74 games in any season during his career (except for the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season). For a player who doesn't shy away from physicality (80 or more hits in three of last four years), this either means he's incredibly lucky, or takes great care of his body. Assuming it's the latter, the younger Leafs will learn plenty from the way he trains and prepares for games.

While some questioned the signing, it certainly provides a huge morale boost to players like Kadri, who have never skated alongside someone with the pedigree and vast NHL experience of Marleau.

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Arizona Coyotes goaltender Louis Domingue is hoping someone will return an important part of his on-ice wardrobe.

Domingue took to Twitter on Tuesday pleading for any information as to the whereabouts of his new mask that was stolen out of his bags while traveling between Montreal, Dallas, and Arizona.

The 25-year-old is asking anybody who might know anything about the disappearance to reach out to him on Twitter.

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One of the most influential and revolutionary contributors to the goaltending position, Francois Allaire, retired from his craft Tuesday, according to TVA Sports' Renaud Lavoie.

The 57-year-old Allaire spent the last 32 years as a goalie coach with the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and most recently, the Colorado Avalanche.

Allaire was the first-ever goalie coach of the Canadiens, where he took a young protege by the name of Patrick Roy under his wing and helped him become arguably the best goaltender of all time.

Though netminders such as Glenn Hall, Tony Esposito, and Vladislav Tretiak experimented with falling to both knees to make a save, Roy made it the most popular style under Allaire's tutelage. Any goalie who doesn't use the butterfly nowadays is considered a dinosaur.

Allaire joined the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1996, where he turned an unheralded Guy Hebert into one of the league's best goalies. Yet, his best work in Orange County came with Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who won the Conn Smythe Award in 2003 and later the Stanley Cup in 2007.

Allaire finished his career with stints in Toronto and Colorado, but his everlasting legacy will live on. Without Allaire, goalie coaches might not exist today, while goaltenders might still be standing up to make saves, and the NHL would be a much higher-scoring game.

In addition to Roy, Hebert, and Giguere, other notable goalies to work under the instruction of Allaire included Jocelyn Thibault, Roberto Luongo, Martin Biron, Ilya Bryzgalov, Jonas Hiller, James Reimer, Semyon Varlamov, and Calvin Pickard.

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Any team looking to hire a depth defenseman should slide into James Wisniewski's DMs.

The 33-year-old and former 50-point man - as he was sure to point out - tweeted Tuesday that he's still looking for a job:

Wisniewski appears to be open to either an NHL job or possibly elsewhere, hinting that he'd be open to playing at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

He spent last season split between the KHL's Vladivostok Admiral and the AHL's Chicago Wolves. Wisniewksi's last NHL stint came during the 2015-16 season with the Carolina Hurricanes when he was dealt a season-ending injury just 47 seconds into his first game of the season.

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Jaromir Jagr may not be a part of the NHL this year, but that doesn't mean hockey fans won't have at least one graybeard to fawn over.

Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara enters the coming campaign as one of just two 40-year-olds - the other being Minnesota Wild center Matt Cullen - and while he's had a prolific 19-year career, Chara doesn't see 2017-18 as his swan song.

"I definitely want to play beyond this season," Chara told Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com. "It's really hard to put a number on it. Some people do and some people don't. I just obviously want to keep playing beyond this season.

"I love this game too much. I have made no secrets about it. I want to stay here and continue to play."

While Chara may have his sights set on the years ahead, there are no guarantees he'll play beyond 2017-18. That's because he's entering the season on the final year of a seven-year deal he signed in 2011.

Still, earning a contract extension will be only part of his focus this season.

"I love the game. I love everything about it. I love the sacrifice and I love the training. There are so many things that are so positive," Chara added. "At my age, I look at what I can still do and just really enjoy it. I just want to keep improving and play for as long as I can."

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Despite a hefty pay bump, Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl expects things to be business as usual.

The 21-year-old was on the ice with many of his teammates for an informal skate Tuesday, where he later stated that his new eight-year, $68-million contract won't add any more pressure than he's already been used to.

"There's always pressure really, it doesn't matter," Draisaitl told reporters. "Last year I had the pressure of it being my contract year and it's the same every year. For me it's not really a matter of the pressure too much. I want to live up to that contract and that's what I'm going to try and do."

Last season Draisaitl had a career year, capitalizing in the final year of his entry-level contract by putting up 29 goals and 77 points in 82 games, finishing second in both categories on the Oilers behind only Connor McDavid.

In the end Draisaitl got paid and his deal appears to have even set the tone for the market, as reports suggest Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak is seeking a similar deal.

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Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik announced Tuesday a $1 million donation to the American Red Cross in response to Hurricane Harvey flood relief efforts.

The donation comes six days after the NHL and the NHLPA made a combined contribution of $200,000 to the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity.

"Penny (Vinik) and I stand alongside the wider Tampa Bay Lightning family in expressing support for all victims of Hurricane Harvey," Vinik said in a statement. "We are honored to support our fellow Gulf Coast community and deeply admire the resilience of those affected by this storm. We will keep all residents and first responders in our thoughts as rebuilding efforts commence."

Hurricane Harvey caused recent catastrophic flooding in Houston. It was the first Category 4 hurricane to reach landfall in the U.S. since 2005. Harvey flooded hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people, and 66 casualties have been confirmed.

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Andreas Athanasiou may be ready to walk the walk.

The restricted free agent has been unable to come to an agreement with the Detroit Red Wings, and is fielding offers from at least one KHL club. According to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, Athanasiou is believed to have a one-year offer in the range of $2.5 million to $3 million from Ak Bars Kazan.

Therefore, says agent Darren Ferris, "because of the huge disparity, the KHL has moved to more of a probability at this time."

Ferris recently commented on the "considerable difference" between what the Wings were offering and what Athanasiou could earn in the KHL, but up to this point, it seemed as though it was all posturing for the sake of pressuring the club to increase its offer.

Athanasiou scored 18 goals - 17 at even strength - in 64 games while averaging 13:28 of ice time last season.

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The Buffalo Sabres don't appear to be any closer to inking center Jack Eichel to a long-term extension.

In fact, talks between the two sides have recently died down, Eichel's agent, Peter Donatelli, told Matthew Bove of WKBW.

"Right now, Jack is planning on starting the season," Donatelli said. "Whether or not he has a contract extension prior to the season, we do not know and is not his main focus going into camp."

While Eichel seems fully prepared to enter 2017-18 on the final year of his entry-level deal, he hasn't closed the door on negotiating once the puck drops. That's a different tune from some players, who prefer to avoid the distraction of in-season contract talks.

"I have no problem playing the year out," Eichel told Paul Hamilton of WGR 550, according to Bove. "I'm adamant about staying a Sabre, I want to bring some new excitement to this town and the contract thing will take care of itself.

"I look at myself to be one of the leaders on this team and a guy that's going to push this organization to the next level. So I've got to be a guy that everybody leans on and I've got to be better on and off the ice."

Last month, Jason Botterill, the first-year general manager of the Sabres, noted he'd like to re-sign Eichel for eight years, the maximum contract term permitted by the NHL.

The second overall pick in the 2015 draft, Eichel finished first on the Sabres in scoring last year with 57 points, despite missing the first 21 games of the season after he suffered a high-ankle sprain.

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