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Did the Pegulas interview LA Kings AGM Mike Futa for three hours at New Era Field on Tuesday?
According to a source, a meeting between the Pegulas and Futa took place.
Futa, who previously served as LA Kings Vice President, Hockey Operations and Director of Player Personnel, was promoted last week to Assistant General Manager under new Kings President Luc Robitaille and Vice President
“Mike has been tremendous and we’re going to sit with him over the next couple days, and there are vacant positions and I think at the end of the day I’m going to lean tremendously on him,” Blake said. “His success that he’s had here with the draft and the Ontario League and what he’s done professionally, we’ll come with an agreement there shortly.”
Futa had interviewed for the Buffalo Sabres GM job that eventually was awarded to Tim Murray in 2013. Futa had been approached by the Vancouver Canucks.
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Things are not ducky in Tampa.
Lightning all star wing Nikita Kucherov is throwing massive shade at his teammates and his head Wednesday.
Kucherov has the leverage and is not aftaid to use it to his advantage.
Kucherov is salty because he is resigned to play for his native Russia at the IIHF World Championships. Kucherov had hoped to make a run to his third streaight Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, he is slumming it at The Worlds.
Kucheriv told Russian outlet Sovietsky Sport that some of his Tampa teammates "overstayed" their welcome with the Lightning. "They got their money and stopped working." Kucherov said.
Kucherov also criticized head coach Jon Cooper for his "kaleidoscope" line combinations that clearly frustrated the Russian sniper.
"Some guys overstayed in team," Kucherov told Sovietsy Sport, per translation, as reported by Joe Smoth of the Tampa Times.
"They've got their money and stopped working. They knew there's no competition for their positions and the organization is not going to take someone else. They played not really well this year. You can see it in their stats and way of play. When we played together and I made a pass, they even were not expecting this. That's why this season was hard for me despite good stats."
Kucherov's agent has authenticated his client's sharply pointed comments. Kucherov respects GM Steve Yzerman and head coach Jon Cooper, but said not everyone on theLightning was "on board" with winning a Stanley Cup in 2016-17. Kucherov and his teammates made a heroic charge at the end of the season but missed the playoffs.
Kucherov scored 40 goals and earned a trip to the All Star game for the first time.l in his electrifying NHL carerer.
Tampa Bay's season was sabotaged by yet another serious injury to captain Steven Stamkos that occurred on November 15.
"We had great chemistry with Namestnikov and Stamkos at the start of the season," Kucherov said. ""We understood each other really really well. And then Stamkos was injured, I was very upset. I think those nine games were my best in the NHL. After that coaches started shuffling lines. Partners were changing like in a kaleidoscope. It was very hard to get used to it, because guys didn't play at Stamkos level. It's hard to explain how I played with them. We had a lack of understanding of each other and there were some problems. I was suffering torments all season, because I couldn't find perfect chemistry with other partners after Stamkos injury. We played with Jonathan Drouin once, and it was good. But coach didn't put us together again for some reason."
In my opinion, Kucherov has every reason to be pissed off at his situation and his Bolts teammates. He just finished the first year of a three year bridge contract worth $4.6 million.
He accepted a team-friendly bridge contract and left serious stacks of jack on the table as opposed to holding out so he wouldn't miss a regular season game. Noble cause, but it backfired in Kucherov's face. The guy is worth $6 million plus per season times six seasons. Kucherov left money on the table so that Yzerman could pay his teammates. Some of his teammates rewarded Yzerman by mailing in a sub par effort in 2016-17.
Which players "stopped working?"
Alex Killorn was in the first year of a lucrative seven year deal.
Kucherov's former Triplets linemates Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are set to become restricted free agent this summer. Ditto Jonathon Drouin and defenseman Andrej Sustr.
With only $18M in available cap space, how is Yzerman going to make four star RFAs happy?
Johnson and Palat each earned $3.3M AAV last season and will be looking for fat pay taisss on long term deals.sustre earned $1.45M AAV and will be looking for $4M plus AAV over six seasons.Drouin is now trade bait. Droning earned $894K last season and will be looking for a long term deal in the $5M AAV neighborhood.
Steve Yzerman cannot afford to keep all of his RFAs. He will also be losing a veteran player to the Vegas expansion draft in June.
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Buffalo Sabres fans should be hoping and praying that Tampa GM Pat Verbeek interviews for and gets the Buffalo Sabres GM job.
Verbeek would likely work out a trade for Drouin to play left wing for Jack Eichel in Buffalo.
Drouin and Eichel would kill it while playing together. Eichel could easily achieve 40G, 40 plus assist status with a dynamic winger like Drouin feeding him apples, and vice versa.
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Buffalo Sabres co-owner Kim Pegula said Wednesday that she and her husband Terry have begun their hiring search after firing GM Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma last week.
“We’re keeping it under wraps, but definitely put a lot of work this week in, and next week,” Pegula told the Buffalo News Wednesday morning.
Getting updates from the Pegulas on the searches for coach and GM is like breaking into Fort Knox. However, the names that I continue to hear are Chris Drury, Tom Fitzgerald, Pat Verbeek, Norm Maciver and Bill Zito.
Don't expect to hear much from the Pegulas this week on their GM and head coach searches as the NFL Draft is later this week. The Pegulas are very involved in the drafting process of their Buffalo Bills.
Pegula was quoted as she attended the presser to announce a new joint partnership between Labatt USA and Pegula Sports and Entertainment. The Pegulas announced plans to develop the building at 79 Perry Street, adjacent to the rink, into a mixed-use facility that will house a Labatt restaurant and brewery.
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