A little less than 24 hours to the opening of free agency, unless you’re a 22-year-old-next-week college defenseman*. Mike Heika reports that Dallas plans to buy out Eric Godard’s second year. Bob McKenzie just tweeted that the Leafs are buying out Colby Armstrong. Edit: And Oskars Bartulis and Eric Boulton as well.
Some other accumulated links before I try to go reportin’ and writin’:
Edit: Sacred Heart’s Matt Gingera signs with Tulsa of the Central League. He had an ATO with now-defunct Chicago (ECHL) last year.
Terry Murray indeed gets the Adirondack job, leaving one out there. (An interesting stat from the league office.) Meanwhile, Hartford assistant J.J. Daigneault, who did good work with their defensemen, moves back to Montreal.
| TEAM | Old | New |
| TEX | Jeff Pyle (4/16) | Willie Desjardins (6/12) |
| SPR | Rob Riley (4/16) | Brad Larsen (5/21) |
| BIN | Kurt Kleinendorst (5/8) | Luke Richardson (5/23) |
| ADK | Joe Paterson (5/22) | Terry Murray (6/29) |
| MIL | Ian Herbers (5/30, U Alberta) | Dean Evason (6/19) |
| CHI | Craig MacTavish (6/11) | Scott Arniel (6/26) |
| PEO | Jared Bednar (6/12) | Dave Allison (6/12) |
| HAM | Clement Jodoin (6/12, MON ass’t) | Sylvain Lefebvre(6/12) |
| LE | David Quinn (6/14, COL ass’t) | Dean Chynoweth (6/27) |
| GR | Curt Fraser (6/18, DAL ass’t) | Jeff Blashill (6/25) |
| NOR | Jon Cooper-a (6/21) | Trent Yawney-a (6/21) |
| SYR | Trent Yawney-a (6/21) | Jon Cooper-a (6/21) |
| BPT | Brent Thompson (6/27) | — |
a-Affiliation swap between Norfolk and Syracuse, Anaheim and Tampa Bay.
Ref Marcus Vinnerborg goes back to Sweden. So the last impression of him is that weird game in Providence the night Bridgeport clinched the division. That said, I think the strongest impression is probably this interview he gave last summer. Good stuff.
Glad to see that Owen Newkirk has a new job.
And RIP, Pat Cummings and Don Grady (h/t to the comments).
*-(/soapbox) I don’t have a problem with Justin Schultz. I don’t even see his free agency as a “loophole.” A team holds your rights for four years after you’re drafted? That’s a long time to restrict your employment and not pay you. Had Schultz gone to college in that first year after his draft, he’d have the same right, just delayed until Aug. 15. If he were drafted twice out of junior, he’d have been unrestricted June 1. (/offsoapbox)