from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Sportsnet’s Marc Savard feels the Senators have a legitimate chance to re-sign Duchene. Very curious to see if Montreal becomes a rival for his services. The Canadiens looked into it, but didn’t want to pay the rental price. Do they circle back in June?.

- Days before Pittsburgh acquired Erik Gudbranson, the Penguins had a nasty game with San Jose where Sidney Crosby ended up fighting Haley — a tough customer. According to The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, a Penguins player saw Evander Kane look at their bench and say, “Who on this team is going to do anything about it?” Gudbranson badly needed a fresh start, and, if anyone can breathe new energy into his career, Sergei Gonchar is a great bet. But you have to believe Gudbranson ended up in Pittsburgh (and Adam McQuaid in Columbus) with Washington in mind.

- Six teams — Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, New Jersey, the Rangers and Philadelphia — own more than a quarter of the NHL’s 2019 draft picks. They all have 10, or 60 of the 217, which is 28 per cent. If you add in Carolina, Florida, Vancouver and Vegas’s nine, that’s 10 of the NHL’s 31 clubs with 44 per cent of the selections. Five teams have two firsts. The Sabres had three before sending one to Anaheim for Montour.

- Expect there to be some discussion at the GM meetings about resting players before the deadline. I don’t know how you can avoid it, and it is not happening often enough during the season to be a major concern. But, it’s been informally chatted about.

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