The NHLPA plans to use a provision in the league's collective bargaining agreement to extend the deadline for its decision on reopening the current CBA until Monday, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

The provision allows the deadline, originally set for Sept. 15, to be moved to the next business day because that date lands on a Sunday.

On Aug. 30, the NHL announced its decision not to reopen the CBA, which is set to run through the 2020-21 season. The current CBA will be terminated if the players opt to reopen discussions, potentially resulting in a work stoppage in September 2020.

The NHL and NHLPA reached a deal for the current CBA in January 2013 following a prolonged dispute that shortened the 2012-13 campaign to 48 games. The league lost the entire 2004-05 season after the sides failed to come to terms on an agreement prior to that campaign.

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The Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes are reportedly among the teams interested in Dallas Stars defenseman Julius Honka, according to Sportsnet's Eric Engels and Elliotte Friedman.

The 23-year-old blue-liner requested a trade Friday.

Selected 14th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft, Honka is a right-handed shot with elite puck-moving ability but was unable to carve out a full-time role in Dallas. He tallied just 13 points in 87 career games across three seasons, was a healthy scratch for the final 35 contests of the 2018-19 campaign, and didn't appear in the playoffs.

Montreal may be seeking more mobility and offensive upside on the back end, as Jeff Petry and Shea Weber were the team's only rearguards to top 25 points a season ago.

Friedman describes the Hurricanes' interest as dependent on "other things they are considering." The Canes have reportedly been discussing a trade with the Anaheim Ducks involving veteran defenseman Justin Faulk, but it's apparently contingent on Faulk agreeing to an extension beforehand.

If Faulk is dealt for a forward, Carolina's third defense pairing would have an opening for a right-handed shot.

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Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine will train with SC Bern of the Swiss league during his contract stalemate, the team's head coach Kari Jalonen told Sami Hoffren of Finnish outlet Ilta-Sanomat.

Laine is there strictly for training purposes: "He won't play for us this season," Jalonen said.

Jalonen, the former bench boss of the Finnish national team, coached Laine at the 2016 World Championship.

Laine is one of the many restricted free agents around the league without a contract. That list shrunk by one yesterday after Mitch Marner signed his deal, which could provide a ripple effect throughout the NHL.

Laine's countryman and fellow RFA Mikko Rantanen has taken a similar route, skating with Storhamar Dragons of the Norwegian league.

The Jets sniper was inconsistent last year, scoring 18 of his 30 goals during a 12 games stretch in November. He said last month he's "prepared for anything" and will play "somewhere" this season.

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The Minnesota Wild signed defenseman Jared Spurgeon to a seven-year extension with a $7.575-million average annual value, the team announced Saturday.

Spurgeon was set to hit unrestricted free agency after the 2019-20 season. The 29-year-old set career highs in goals (14), assists (29), and points (43) last year.

The new deal will make him the 11th-highest-paid defenseman in the league in 2020-21, just ahead of teammate Ryan Suter.

The 5-foot-9, 167-pound Spurgeon may not have the conventional look of an elite shutdown defender, but that's exactly what he is. Among blue-liners who logged at least 500 minutes at five-on-five last year, Spurgeon allowed the 15th-fewest expected goals and the 11th-fewest high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. And they aren't soft minutes - Spurgeon matches up against opponents' top lines.

The extension marks new general manager Bill Guerin's first major splash with the Wild.

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Mitch Marner can breathe a deep sigh of relief.

The longstanding public contract negotiation between the star forward and Toronto Maple Leafs is now over after the two sides agreed on a six-year, $65.36-million deal Thursday. After it was all said and done, Marner opened up about how difficult the process was in an interview with TSN's Darren Dreger.

"Guys talk about the stress and everything like that, but until you go through it you don't really understand it, but I'm happy it's over with," Marner told Dreger.

Marner said talks really escalated in the last two days.

"(I pushed) pretty hard, I knew we were close so I just wanted to kind of be more a part of it," he said. "In the last 48 hours or so I just made sure that I expressed to Kyle a couple times what the feeling was and what we had and what we wanted to do going forward."

Marner added that William Nylander's contract stalemate a year ago played a part in his decision to get a deal done. Nylander waited until Dec. 1 to sign and when he returned to the lineup, it took him a while to get back into game shape and find his footing. Marner remembers Nylander telling him how much of a grind the whole process was mentally and physically.

However, Nylander was back home in Sweden during his drawn-out negotiation, while Marner, a native of Markham, Ontario - a suburb of Toronto - couldn't escape public scrutiny.

"I was walking my dog and I had like a 13-year-old kid yelling at me from across the park, screaming at me for not signing," Marner said. "That's the Toronto fan base and it's great to be a part of for another six years."

The pressure to sign didn't stop around the neighborhood, as Marner and his family - specifically his father, Paul - took some heat on social media.

"Social media has its benefits, it's good for certain things, but it's also good for a lot of bad things. People express their hate for people on that. It's something that a lot of athletes go through on social media, is the hate," he said.

"It was more so seeing all the stuff said about my family that made me disappointed and mad. I expected stuff to come at (agent Darren Ferris) and myself, but I saw a couple comments about my father and stuff like that that nobody is gonna like seeing or reading. It was pretty disappointing to see people express themselves about my family and my family name."

Many Twitter users were under the impression Paul Marner was a driving force in the negotiations and fed information to Dreger throughout the process.

With the business side of things now in the past, Marner can just focus on hockey.

"I'm super excited," Marner said, who was on his way to the airport to join the team in St. John's, Newfoundland for training camp.

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Check out theScore's 2019-20 fantasy hockey draft kit for all the advice you need leading up to the start of the season.

Yahoo fantasy sports (finally) ditched penalty minutes as a category in standard leagues. It's been replaced with hits in head-to-head leagues and blocks in head-to-head points leagues. To account for both styles, these rankings take the following categories into account:

These rankings are based on 12-team leagues and factor in positional value. The value of certain positions can change depending on the size of the league. Positional eligibility is courtesy of Yahoo.

*Unsigned RFA

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Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov will be suspended by the NHL to start the season for his positive cocaine test, but the ban is not expected to exceed three games, sources told The Washington Post's Isabelle Khurshudyan.

More to come.

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