All posts by Flip Livingstone

Report: Oilers want to trade Lucic, not simply to offload contract

There's been a lot of speculation about Milan Lucic's potential departure from Edmonton this summer.

However, despite initial rumors indicating Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli is willing to simply offload Lucic's hefty remaining contract at any cost, the latest rumblings point to Edmonton wanting to wait for a deal that better suits the organization, sources told The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.

Lucic is under contract for the next five seasons at a pricey cap hit of $6 million per year. Combine that with his relatively dismal 2017-18 campaign in which he managed only 10 goals and 24 assists across 82 games, and the Oilers actively considering a move comes as little surprise.

Even with his poor recent performance and massive contract, Lucic's 6-foot-3 and 236-pound frame will still have general managers sniffing around to test the waters.

Edmonton inked Lucic to a whopping seven-year deal worth $42 million in July 2016. That contract came with a no-movement clause, which would need to be waived by Lucic to get any trade done.

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Orpik needed pinky reattached after Haula slash in Game 2 of Cup Final

Hockey players are tough creatures, and that toughness somehow gets ratcheted up a few notches in the playoffs. Case in point: Brooks Orpik and his slashed-off pinky finger.

The Washington Capitals rearguard addressed the media during the Caps' locker room cleanout Wednesday, divulging a bit of injury news in the process. "It probably looked a lot worse than it was," Orpik said of his injured digit, according to Tarik El-Bashir of NBC Sports.

"It was tough to look at, but the trainers did a really good job. It (finger) kind of fell off."

Despite the gruesome nature of the injury, which he suffered on a late third-period slash from Golden Knights forward Erik Haula in Game 2, Orpik will not require any offseason surgery.

Orpik was a complete workhorse for Washington all playoffs, not missing a single game while registering five points and a league-best plus-17 rating.

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Kings trade Andreoff to Lightning for Budaj

The Los Angeles Kings traded forward Andy Andreoff to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for veteran backup goalie Peter Budaj on Wednesday.

Budaj spent the majority of two seasons with the Kings between 2015-2017 after signing a free-agent deal with L.A. in October 2015. He would go on to log a 28-20-3 record before being dealt to the Lightning in February 2017.

Most recently, the 35-year-old played in only eight contests last season for the Bolts, earning a 3-3-1 record to along with a .876 save percentage and 3.76 goals-against average.

As for Andreoff, a third-round pick of the Kings in 2011, he's registered 13 goals and 11 assists across 159 regular-season games. Andreoff's size (6-foot-1, 203 lbs) and aggressive style should provide the Lightning with an element of truculence in the team's bottom-six forward group if he's able to crack the NHL lineup.

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Backstrom played through multiple fractures in finger during playoffs

The Washington Capitals have been tearing D.C. up with their epic Cup celebrations over the last few days. However, one of their star players was probably just trying to numb the pain from a lingering postseason injury.

Nicklas Backstrom missed the final game of the second round and the opening three games of the Conference Finals with an upper-body injury. So on Wednesday, Backstrom revealed to the media that he suffered a couple fractures in his finger, according to Tarik El-Bashir of NBC Sports.

Prior to leaving Game 5 of Washington's series versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, Backstrom blocked multiple shots up to that point of the contest, so fractures in his finger could have easily come from that.

Regardless, Backstrom's ability to fight through injury should be praised, as he was a key contributor for the Caps and a main reason for their Cup victory, notching two goals and eight assists in the seven games after his return. He finished the entire postseason with five goals and 18 assists in 20 contests.

Backstrom will not require any offseason surgery to repair his digit.

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What Subban rumors? ‘Nobody’s even called me about him,’ says Poile

The Nashville Predators aren't trading P.K. Subban.

And if common hockey sense isn't enough to drive that point home, an emphatic statement from Predators general manager David Poile should.

"You see tweets from different places, but, that’s not happening," Poile said of a potential Subban trade, according to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.

"Nobody has even called me about him. P.K. played terrific this year. He played really well. He’s a really good player. He's one of the three candidates for the Norris Trophy. I really don’t know where this comes from."

Despite the Predators falling short of reaching a second straight Stanley Cup Final this past season, Subban produced a solid campaign in which he racked up 16 goals and 43 assists while averaging over 24 minutes of ice time per game.

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Hoffman’s agent says Sens knew of harassment allegations since April

The unfortunate scenario developing out of Ottawa surrounding the alleged campaign of harassment against Erik and Melinda Karlsson on the part of Senators teammate Mike Hoffman's fiancee, Monika Caryk, took another turn Tuesday night.

Related: Erik Karlsson's wife accuses Hoffman's girlfriend of harassment campaign

The latest details emerging indicate that the Senators, Hoffman, and his agent, Robert Hooper, were all aware of the alleged harassment since the end of the regular season. "This isn’t something we talked about with (Senators GM) Pierre (Dorion) just today," Hooper said, according to Shaamini Yogaretnam of the Ottawa Citizen. "We’ve been aware of this situation since the end of the season."

Hooper's comments came on the same day that news broke regarding Caryk's alleged extensive harassment of the Karlssons over the past season, prompting Melinda to file for a peace bond - the equivalent of a restraining order - in early May.

Regardless of how the allegations shake out, the likelihood of Karlsson and Hoffman being able to productively function as teammates decreases by the day. It's a fact that both players' camps and the Sens are well aware of.

"What we’ve indicated to Pierre is that, and let’s call a spade a spade, it would be very difficult for both parties - both Erik and Mike as well as the wives and the fiancees - to co-exist in the same wives’ room and the same dressing room," Hooper said.

The Senators released a short statement Tuesday night indicating the organization is "investigating this matter in cooperation with the NHL and will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the safety and privacy of our players and their families."

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Erik Karlsson’s wife accuses Hoffman’s girlfriend of harassment campaign

Erik Karlsson's wife, Melinda Karlsson, has applied for a peace bond against Monika Caryk, the longtime girlfriend of Ottawa Senators forward Mike Hoffman, over an alleged campaign of harassment, according to Shaamini Yogaretnam of the Ottawa Citizen.

The application for the peace bond - the criminal code equivalent of a restraining order - was sworn in front of the courts May 4. It alleges that Caryk had been threatening the Karlssons since November 2017.

In late March, the Karlssons announced on social media that their son, Axel, was stillborn. After that, Melinda says Caryk attacked the Karlssons via social media comments and posts. However, Melinda indicated the harassment started much earlier.

"Monika Caryk has uttered numerous statements wishing my unborn child dead," Melinda's statement to the court reads. "She also uttered that she wished I was dead and that someone should 'take out' my husband's legs to 'end his career.'

"Monika Caryk has posted over 1,000 negative and derogatory statements about me as a professional."

Hoffman denied the allegations when reached by the Citizen on Tuesday afternoon.

"There is a 150 percent chance that my fiancee Monika and I are not involved in any of the accusations that have been pursued (that are) coming our way. We totally understand there's no place for cyberbullying," Hoffman said.

Hoffman said he and Caryk have offered to cooperate, and reiterated his claim that they were not responsible.

The peace bond application had an ordered court date of May 25. By that time, Caryk had yet to be served with the notice, according to Yogaretnam.

Hoffman and Karlsson have been Senators teammates since 2011.

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Watch: Ovechkin ends Cup parade with NSFW speech

Warning: Video contains coarse language

By now, if you haven't gotten swept away in the raucousness of Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals' legendary Stanley Cup celebrations, you've probably been hiding out in a bunker or in some kind of Wi-Fi-free zone.

However, luckily enough for those who have missed the last few days of partying, the crowning moment of the entire five-day bender went down Tuesday at the conclusion of Washington's Cup parade, when Ovi took the stage.

The victory, the party, the parade, the speech - it all transpired in true Caps fashion and it really was a wild ride.

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Best moments from Capitals’ Stanley Cup parade

When all is said and done, Alex Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup celebration will go down as one of the best championship parties in North American sports history.

So it comes as little surprise that Tuesday's parade was another one for the books. Beers, bodacious crowds, and of course, lots of candid moments with Ovi and the Cup. The scenes from downtown D.C. are most definitely worth another look.

Warning: Some videos contain coarse language

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Rangers ink netminder Mazanec to new 1-year deal

The New York Rangers re-signed journeyman netminder Marek Mazanec to a one-year deal Tuesday, the team announced.

Mazanec played 23 games for Bratislava Slovan of the KHL last season, amassing a 4-15-12 record before returning to North America to play for the Rangers' AHL affiliate in Hartford, where he went 11-6-1 with a 2.97 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage across 20 games.

The Czech native was drafted by the Nashville Predators in the sixth round of the 2012 NHL Draft. He was a restricted free agent this offseason before signing the new contract with New York.

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