(UPDATE 10:05 AM)- A signing to pass along from this morning’s media availability. Restricted free agent forward Mike Hoffman has come to terms with the Senators on a one year, two way deal. A little bit surprised to see Hoffman take another two way deal but obviously he wasn’t in a situation where he had a ton of leverage. As of now, it seems like Hoffman will have a spot with the NHL team next season.
The NHL Draft is now just 8 days away and rumours continue to swirl around Bryan Murray and the Ottawa Senators.
With teams calling about his Captain, this figures to be a tense weekend for Murray and his staff. While they don’t currently have a pick in Friday night’s first round, there have been plenty of rumours suggesting Murray may have one before the selections start a little over a week from now.
Murray and his staff held their usual pre-draft media availability and had some interesting things to say about what fans can expect over the next week or so. In addition to the Spezza situation, the free agency window opens on June 25th with teams officially able to sign guys beginning on July 1. When you add the RFAs the team still has to sign and a few UFAs to be that can start to talk extension- this will certainly be a busy next couple weeks.
Here’s some of what Bryan Murray had to say today…
-As expected, Murray indicated that there are currently ongoing discussions with certain teams about a Jason Spezza trade. He didn’t seem to be overly excited about the potential return in the deal but suggested that two teams are serious in their pursuit. And in an interesting development, Murray said that he will not allow teams to talk to Spezza about an extension until the deal is done.
-Despite the assumption that a deal has to be done before the start of the season, Murray seemed to suggest that this isn’t a situation where he feels he HAS to make a trade. Murray said this is different than the situation with Heatley and that he’ll only make a deal if he’s getting what he wants in return.
-Murray had good things to say about negotiations with Milan Michalek and seemed optimistic that they can get a deal done.
