Truth & Rumors > NHL

10:03 AM ET 05.19 | File this one away for the July 5 opening of the free agent market: If there's one guy on that Capitals club the Rangers have come to respect over the course of their annual playoff confrontations, that would be Matt Hendricks, the jagged-edged center who kills penalties and fits the Black-and-Blueshirt mold. Hendricks, who turns 32 next month, will be coming off a contract under which he earned $825,000 per. Expect the Rangers to put in a call when the market opens.

New York Post

> Comment

10:58 AM ET 05.19 | Player agent Wade Arnott will be significant in the Leafs off-season plans, no matter what happens. He represents Tyler Bozak, David Clarkson and Phil Kessel, who may be worth re-signing long-term after July. Kessel, by the way, despite his oddness, loves playing in Toronto. He likes the hockey buzz, even if he doesn't care to take part in all of it. He's happy to stay a Leaf if they're happy to keep him. That part we don't know yet.

Toronto Sun

> Comment

09:59 AM ET 05.19 | Long Island is neither Brooklyn's to promise nor a particularly good idea, if you want to know the truth about the Bruce Ratner/Brett Yormark plan to schedule six Islanders games a season at a remodeled, downsized Coliseum once the club makes the move to Barclays. The concept is being sold as a romance novel, yet, as is typical in these sorts of things, the plan isn't really novel at all. It is about real estate. The Rangers/MSG already have approved the Islanders' move to Brooklyn, as was required under the NHL constitution. There is no reason at all to believe they would green-light this hopscotch back to the Island for a half-dozen games, with their approval again required by the league. Unless Ratner is going to pledge to ante up the difference in revenue between a full house in Brooklyn and one in a downsized Coliseum, it stretches credulity to believe the NHL and NHLPA would allow six games to be played in an arena with a capacity of 13,000.

New York Post

> Comment

08:15 AM ET 05.18 | On Friday, San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson revealed his thoughts about the league-mandated suspension to veteran forward Raffi Torres. Torres was banned for the remainder of the Sharks' second-round series against Los Angeles for an illegal hit to the head of forward Jarret Stoll during the second period of the Kings' 2-0 Game 1 win on Tuesday. "The Sharks organization fully supports the NHL in its efforts to remove illegal and dangerous hits from the game but we strongly disagree with the NHL's decision to suspend Raffi Torres," Wilson said in a statement. "Upon review of the incident, it is abundantly clear that this was a clean hockey hit. As noted by the NHL, Raffi's initial point of contact was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on an opponent who was playing the puck. He did not leave his feet or elevate, he kept his shoulder tucked and elbow down at his side, and he was gliding -- not skating or charging. "As evidenced in the video, just prior to Torres making contact with the opposing player, that player altered his posture to play a bouncing puck with his hand, placing himself in a vulnerable position.

Chicago Tribune

> Comment

07:59 AM ET 05.18 | Brad Richards being benched and demoted to the fourth line, not once, not twice, but game after game after game in the playoffs, and that is a pretty darn big deal, even as it has somehow become business as usual for the Rangers. I mean, it's Brad Richards. Make no mistake: Richards is one of John Tortorella's favorite players ever. Richards, who turned 33 a couple of weeks ago, isn't some bit guy. He was supposed to be the missing link when he signed that nine-year, $60 million contract over the summer of 2011 under which he has already been paid $24 million -- and would be owed another $24 million if the Rangers use their final amnesty buyout on him this summer. Everyone thinks the lockout, through which Richards remained at home and engaged in the negotiations, is at the root of his problems. It remains to be seen whether the buyout decision is deferred until after the 2013-14 season that will begin with a training camp, but no one can say Tortorella didn't see something like this coming. "I worry about our older guys like Richie and [since-departed Mike Rupp] who aren't playing [in Europe]," Tortorella told The Post on Oct. 23, nearly three months before the season would start. "It's tough and they need to stay on top of it."

New York Post

> Comment