NHL Rumors: Nikolaj Ehlers, and Sidney Crosby

The Winnipeg Jets may not be able to fit in a Nikolaj Ehlers extension

TSN: Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers has a year left on his contract, and although the Jets would like to extend Ehlers, financially it may not fit.

He too, is going into the final year of his contract, and I know that general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is at least open to having conversations with interested general managers. I think of the Carolina Hurricanes, potentially the connection there with Marty Necas also in play. But this is more of a financial issue for the Winnipeg Jets. Yeah, they’d like to keep Nikolaj Ehlers and extend him, but they’ve Kyle Connor who has two years left on his deal, and he is going to be a big money ticket.

The Pittsburgh Penguins want to keep things quiet with Sidney Crosby

Adam Kimelman of NHL.com: Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. He’s got one year left on his contract at an $8.7 million cap hit. The Penguins will try to keep this quiet according to GM Kyle Dubas.

“The key for us is, because of the importance of it and how much Sid means to the organization and the city, we want to keep that as quiet as possible and go through it. And then hopefully as we get through this summer, get a sense where everybody’s at and then let everybody know at the right time.”

Dubas will be looking to make the Penguins younger and faster, a move he hopes would help out his veteran core. That is Dubas’ main focus.

“The major focus for us is on right now acquiring as many young players, as many prospects and as many draft picks as we can to try to infuse the team with really good young talent, young players and then have that stocked up for the future as well and attempt to get us back into contention as quickly as we can.”