from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- One negotiation that’s hit a snag: Nashville’s Roman Josi. There was momentum in the summer; that’s stopped. Unless you’re actually in the room, you’re never sure if it’s something serious or two sides grinding away. But there is surprise it isn’t done yet.

- Fans roll their eyes when they hear the word “escrow,” but all of the teams near the cap means it is a big number for the start of this season — 14. There is hope this will be going down as soon as 2020-21, but it’s another reason to believe setting the ceiling for multiple seasons is going to be part of this labour process.

- Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo’s game-winning goal in Monday’s victory over Toronto was the 23rd of his career, passing Al MacInnis for most in franchise history. Pietrangelo, as usual, politely answered all questions pre- and post-game, but declined to go into his contract talks.

“We’ll just see how things go,” the pending unrestricted free agent said. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just worry about playing hockey — that’s my job.”

Like Josi, other GMs would slice each other’s brake lines to talk to him. It is believed St. Louis wishes to use Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s eight-year, $66-million contract as a baseline. His agents (Newport) met with Blues GM Doug Armstrong on Monday.

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