NHL Player News

Wednesday, July 21

• 07/21/10 - 10:35AM ETDavid Perron : Extension With Blues

  Perron signed a two-year, $4.3 million extension with the Blues on Wednesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeremy Rutherford reports.

  Perron, who had been a restricted free agent, will received $1.8 million in 2010-11 and $2.5 million the following year. Perron is just 22 and already registered his first 20-goal season this past campaign. The future is bright for the top-six forward.

Tuesday, July 20

• 07/20/10 - 7:08PM ETIlya Kovalchuk : League Nixes Deal

  The NHL has rejected Kovalchuk 17-year contract, with the Devils, indicating that it circumvents the league's salary cap, the Newark Star Ledger reports.

  Evidently, the extraordinary length of the deal, which helped spread the cap hit for the Devils, is the issue here. Our guess is that a more league-friendly deal will be hammered out in time, but for now Devils' fans will have to wait for the sniper to officially re-join their team. Let's hope Kovalchuk hasn't already spent the whole $102 million the original deal called for.

Monday, July 19

• 07/19/10 - 11:16AM ETSimon Gagne : Traded to Lightning

  Gagne has been traded from Philadelphia to Tampa Bay in exchange for defenseman Matt Walker and a fourth-round pick, Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News reports.

  That's not a ton back in return for a player of Gagne's caliber, but some much-needed cap space is an obvious benefit of this deal for Flyers. For their part, the Lightning add a talented piece to their forward mix.

• 07/19/10 - 8:49AM ETIlya Kovalchuk : Returning to Jersey

  Kovalchuk is expected to announce his return to the Devils in a press conference on Tuesday, the Devils' official site reports.

  Somewhere, David Puddy is very excited about the news of the club re-signing their big midseason trade acquisition. We'll await the terms of the deal, but expect a very long-term contract to keep the talented sniper in a red sweater as the team's premier offensive threat. After a slow start with his new club, Kovalchuk finished the regular season with 27 points (10 G, 17 A) in 27 games for New Jersey before tallying six points (2 G, 4 A) in five postseason contests.