Good morning and happy July 1/free agent frenzy/national holiday Day!
The New York Islanders were making (internal) news, the league was making (good and bad) news, and the day will be filled with two parts news, seventy-three parts rumor. If you're posting rumors/reports in comments, remember to cite your source. If you're retweeting People Who Break News, make sure it's the verified actual people and not @B0bMcK3nzie, mmkay?
Islanders News
- The Isles re-signed Anders Lee to a four-year, $15 million deal. [Newsday | LHH]
- Both Arthur Staple in that report and several earlier ones, and Elliotte Friedman in several bits, expect Thomas Hickey is nearing a contract extension for roughly three years, $2.2 million per.
- The goalie market has kind of filled up for today's free agents. So why not stay here, Michal Neuvirth? [LHH]
- NEW! Garik looks at two more possible free agent defense targets, David Schlemko and secret Swiss Raphael Diaz. [Islander Analytics]
- Doug Weight was interviewed on SiriusXM yesterday morning, talking about the draft, about preparing for first-rounders even when you don't have first-round picks (yet), and on working with Garth Snow and Jack Capuano. [Isles - mp3]
- Add Mathew Barzal to the group who's really freaking excited to be an Islander, and to be headed to Brooklyn. [The Tri-Cities Now]
- Another Coliseum Memory: Feb. 14, Valentine's Day gift. [LHH Fanpost]
- Just lots of cool video and coverage of Andong Song, the first-ever NHL draft pick born in China. [LHH]
- Bill Muckalt leaves Michigan Tech to become a head coach in the USHL. [SBN College Hockey]
Moves! Trades! Buyouts!
- The most interesting week in the world did not let up yesterday, with Brandon Saad moving for a pretty package to Columbus. Supposedly Saad's asking price as an RFA scared the Blackhawks. Supposedly having two players making $10 million each will do that to you.
- The Bruins traded Martin Jones -- the goalie acquired in the Milan Lucic trade -- to the Sharks (where the Kings did NOT want him to go) for a first-round pick. The Sharks promptly signed him for 3x3. [Fear the Fin]
- The Hurricanes will buy out Alexanders Semin. [Canes Country]
- The Panthers will buy out Brad Boyes (former leading scorer yada yada, you're all jerks). [Litter Box Cats]
- The State of Tennessee Department of Revenue isn't going to have these NHLers to kick around anymore. [Sports Business Daily]
The Richards-ucker Proxy
The Mike Richards saga only gets more dramatic: What yesterday was a "border incident" is now reported to be an arrest at the Canadian border over OxyContin, though no charges were filed and the investigation is "on-going." [Winnipeg Sun | Deadspin | ESPN]
Post off its Moorings
For the second time in a year, a Post business reporter says the Coyotes are moving to Las Vegas. The team and the league immediately (re)refuted the report, calling it "completely false," "garbage" and "ridiculous" among other things. [Five for Howlingg | click for Post-ing]
We'll have more free agency-focused posts throughout the morning and afternoon, but you can use this for your general daily discussion and free agent-erbation thread.