According to an NHL source, Flyers assistant coach Terry Murray will be named coach of the LA Kings this week.

Murray, who coached the Flyers to the 1997 Cup Finals, hasn’t been a head coach since he was fired by the Florida Panthers in December 2000.
Murray, the brother of Ottawa GM Bryan Murray, is technically superb, a good teacher and tremendous with the media, which is all that matters, eh?

Wild signed minor-leaguers Danny Irmen, Peter Olvecky, Corey Locke, Bryan Lundbohm and John Scott to one-year deals Tuesday. The Wild signed minor-league defenseman Brandon Rogers to a multi-year deal. Clayton Stoner is the only unsigned minor-league restricted free agent left, but it’s close. 

Wild UFA Joel Ward has signed with Nashville.

Things are quiet, and I’m readying for vacation. But I figured I’d check in.

Wild is busy working on its restricted free agents and getting ready to make Marian Gaborik a long-term extension offer, probably in the neighborhood of $8.5 million per season.

Another big thing to pay attention to is Pierre-Marc Bouchard. I’m not convinced the Wild wants to commit to him long-term at a price that would be equivalent to taking someone’s unrestricted free-agent status (he’s restricted this summer, but one summer from unrestricted free agency).

In other words, as the below quote from Doug Risebrough on June 13 seems to forecast, there’s no doubt the Wild has offered Bouchard a long-term deal. But if the offer isn’t substantial, I see Bouchard turning it down, the two working out a one-year deal before the July 28 arbitration date and then the Wild looking to continue trying to trade Bouchard for the rest of the summer and/or after Jan. 1.
(Here’s Risebrough’s quote from last month: “I’m interested in signing him long-term, but what I’m interested in doing and what he’s interested in doing might not be the same, and my number long-term and his number long-term might not be the same.”)

And you can guarantee it isn’t.

This all comes down to what I was writing way back around midseason. There’s only so many pieces of the pie, and the Wild committed long-term dollars to Brent Burns, Mikko Koivu and Nick Schultz.

But Bouchard continued to be ignored, making one wonder if the Wild was concerned about throwing big dollars at a player it feels is undersized and purely offensive. Of course, he’s one of the best playmakers on the team and keeps scoring points despite playing less than 17 minutes a night. So obviously there will be a difference of opinion in value, which means Bouchard’s long-term future in Minnesota is cloudy.

Some other stuff:

As you read today, Stephane Veilleux is negotiating his own contract with the Wild.

Veilleux feels confident he knows his market value and will be able to work out a fair long-term deal that’ll keep him here for many years. Like Bouchard, he’s one year from unrestricted free agency.

I’ve talked to a few agents in the last couple of days who feel Veilleux’s about to make the mistake of a lifetime and the NHLPA is undoubtedly concerned and trying to keep tabs on Veilleux’s negotiations.

But Veilleux says he’s confident and mature enough to do this on his own.

As for Gaborik, I don’t suspect things will heat up until later this month, and into August. The numbers are obvious though. A few weeks ago, I wrote what the highest paid players in the league make (look for that blog post).

 Gaborik will be right there if he wants to be. The Wild plans to offer him in the $8 million range I believe, and then it’ll be up to Gaborik whether he wants to commit here long-term. If he doesn’t, look out because things will get really interesting here.

Not much else going on.

Wednesday, the Wild will likely announce what it’s home opener is and a few other interesting dates on its schedule.

On Thursday, the NHL and the Wild will release the full schedule, and the Wild will also probably announce its seven- or eight-game exhibition schedule.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.