from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

- The Pittsburgh Penguins were rumored to be interested in Kessel and yes that’s true, but I think veteran general manager Jim Rutherford is going to slow play it and make the deal come to him and not the other way around. If at all. He wants a top-six winger for sure, whether that’s Kessel or Patrick Sharp or Jeff Skinner, there are lots of possibilities out there. But Rutherfrod is not going to be in a rush and force a deal.

- It seemed like a foregone conclusion Thursday morning that the Vancouver Canucks would deal Kevin Bieksa to the San Jose Sharks.

But the trade ultimately never got done. At least not yet.

There seemed to be disagreement over the year of the second-round pick involved, a source said; the Sharks wanted to send a second-rounder from 2016 and the Canucks wanted a second-rounder for 2015.

more on the two topics...