from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- At last year’s December Board of Governors’ meeting, Bettman predicted an $83 million cap, only to see it end up at $81.5 million. Because that number wasn’t finalized until late June, the squeeze tortured teams and players. This time, he was more guarded, refusing to give an estimate. Instead, he recognized that the final number will come as part of a negotiation with the players, who have the right to “inflate” the ceiling by up to five per cent.

While some clubs will be careful because of what happened a year ago, others have the impression it could be $84-$85 million. Why?...

- You know who is looking for a scorer? The New York Islanders. But I’m not expecting Lou Lamoriello to tell me how he feels about Taylor Hall.

- Brendan Shanahan, asked what he would say if another club wanted to talk to Mike Babcock: “I think that’s sort of a hypothetical I wouldn’t want to get into, quite honestly. Much was made of the incident with Mike a few years ago with Mitch Marner, for instance, and I know our general manager at the time (Lou Lamoriello) had called me and let me know about it right away and had addressed it right away with Mike. Mike apologized to Mitch and there was communication with (Lamoriello) and the agent and the family. It wasn’t something that was appropriate or acceptable to us. Since then, my general manager — whether it was Lou or Kyle — had never come to us with a situation like that.

more on the first and last topic plus additional Thoughts...