NHL Rumors: Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, and the Winnipeg Jets

Two sets of plans for the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin

Sammi Silber: The Washington Capitals will have two plans involving Alex Ovechkin and if he retires or not. They are giving him his time and space.

GM Chris Patrick: “If he wants to stay, we’ll go one way. If he decides he wants to retire, we’ll go a different way.”

Sergei Bobrovsky still want to be paid, but will it come from the Florida Panthers?

Julian Gaudio of The Hockey News: Reports from Greg Wyshynski on The Sheet with Jeff Marek have the situation between the Florida Panthers and 37-year-old pending UFA Sergei Bobrovsky as “pretty bad.”

Bobrovsky is coming off a season with a 3.07 GAA and a career worst .877 save percentage. There was speculation before the trade deadline that they could move him, which they obviously didn’t. The Panthers aren’t looking to overpay, with Bobrovsky thinking he should get another big contract.

NHL Rumors: Washington Capitals, and the Vancouver Canucks

The Panthers think they’ll be back to contending next season, and if they don’t feel that Bobrovsky can get it done, they could look at moving on.

Options for the Winnipeg Jets to upgrade down the middle

Murat Ates of The Athletic: The Winnipeg Jets biggest offseason need would be an upgrade at center, ideally a younger than Mark Scheifele two-way player that doesn’t have a no-trade or no-move clause.

A look at five potential options covering an RFAs, someone on their second contract, bad contracts, in their prime and past their prime.

Option 1: Robert Thomas waives his NTC

Option 2: The RFA who wants more – Trevor Zegras, Adam Fantilli, Connor McMichael, Mavrik Bourque, Peyton Krebs, Cole Sillinger

Option 3: Young centres with contracts, but not trade protection – Connor Zary, Ridly Greig and Emmitt Finnie

Option 4: Useful veterans past their prime – Ryan O’Reilly

NHL Rumors: Nashville Predators, and the St. Louis Blues

Option 5: Pettersson? Kotkaniemi? Let’s talk about bad contracts – Elias Pettersson ($11.6 million through 2031-32) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi ($4.82 through 2029-30).

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