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Quick Strikes: Bolts’ development camp continues; Pavelski rumors heat up

Posted on by Alexandra Ackerman

Development Camp

-Tampa Bay Lightning prospects Hugo Alnefelt and Magnus Chrona are both Swedish, and have known each other for a while now. Bryan Burns covered their bond, one that now grows stronger after they were drafted a year apart by the Lightning.

The two became instant friends, the commonality of hockey and goaltending specifically giving them plenty to talk about. That friendship blossomed when they started training with the same coach.

”We understand each other pretty good,” Alnefelt said. “We’ve never played on the same team. I don’t think we’ve ever played against each other either. We’ve just been friends off the ice.”

-Don’t blink or you’ll miss this goal from prospect Mikhail Shalagin:

-Sammy Walker continues to impress:

Other Lightning Stuff

-The Joe Pavelski-to-Tampa rumor train has officially left the station and is hurtling down the tracks at a million miles an hour. Is it true? Is it false? Who knows! Alan, though, just has doubts that the Lightning will be able to fit him in under the cap…at least, not without sacrificing a major player like Yanni Gourde.

Even assuming the Lightning can get him at a number closer to six million because of taxes and his desire to pursue a Cup, there’s no easy solution for how this would work under the salary cap. Any idea of bringing in Pavelski probably has to start with trading Yanni Gourde. The team just signed Gourde to a five year extension at a little over $5 million per season last fall. He has a no-trade clause that would kick in on July 1. So if they want to make that move, it will have to happen before Monday.

-Nikita Kucherov wears 86. So now does Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils. Yesterday, our Geo covered the history of the number around the league.

This makes him the first Devils player to wear the number and only the 19th player to wear a number higher than 50 for the Devils. By choosing to wear #86, he’s joined a group of 13 other players to wear the number in the NHL. He’s joining some elite company in the form of Tampa Bay Lightning’s #86 Nikita Kucherov. He’s also joining some not so elite company.

-Chris Wassel of NHL Rumors put together some points from Joe Smith on the Lightning, Brayden Point, and Ryan Callahan.

Point expects to earn a bit less than Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos. The odd specter of offer sheets looms a little more but Point could just take a deal around $8 to $8.5 million AAV and be happy.

-Get excited: It’s officially countdown season! Start us off, Mikhail Sergachev!

Crunch Stuff

-The Syracuse Crunch’s summer street hockey season is about ready to start up again!

-A report yesterday claimed that the Crunch also has a new goalie and video coach, although there has been no word yet from the organization.

Miscellaneous Stuff

-The Carolina Hurricanes bought out forward Patrick Marleau.

-It appears that Robin Lehner and the New York Islanders are far apart in their negations as July 1 looms. (pay-walled)

-Pride month continues! Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas marched with the team during Toronto’s pride parade.

-Speaking of the Leafs: Does depth hold the answer to their roster concerns?

The Leafs can look around for cheap depth options on July 1, and they might find them, but they’re not plentiful. A lot of teams overspend on depth, and the Leafs aren’t looking to drop millions on an eight-minute player when improving the Kadri line is what will actually make the team better.

-Toronto also extended goalie Michael Hutchinson last night.

-Gritty on the cover of NHL 20? Sure, why not.

-Miroslav Satan has been elected as President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation.

“It’s a big commitment for the coming period. I’ve been working in Slovak hockey for two years and now I have three more ahead,” were the first words of Miroslav Satan as the president, who won with 229 votes to 99, which was nearly 70 percent of all delegates.

-Mike McKenna, who always does a nice job of putting heart into hockey, shared this perspective about rejection and life in the pros:

-Palm Springs has officially applied for an AHL expansion franchise. They will be the farm club for Seattle NHL team. Patrick Williams had a great twitter thread about why this is a positive for the league and for the players, including this point:

-The logo for this season’s AHL All-Star weekend was released yesterday. It will be in Ontario, California.

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Talking Points