from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

- A very common response among the agents I chatted with on Tuesday was that they’re in a holding pattern in a lot of their negotiations while they wait for the official salary-cap number. The league and NHL Players’ Association are expected to agree and announce the cap figure for next season sometime before the NHL draft, which is June 24-25 in Buffalo, N.Y.By the way, the window for agents and teams to start talking about UFAs from other teams opens at 12:01 a.m. ET on June 25 (so one minute past midnight on June 24) at the draft. That's perfect timing, since so many agents will be in Buffalo where all the GMs are.

- It's no surprise, but pending UFA Kyle Okposo is all but certainly headed to market. At 28, the winger is just entering his prime years, so expect there to be some fairly huge interest in him come July 1. Okposo was second in points on the New York Islanders this past season, with 64 (22-42) in 79 games. His agent, Pat Brisson, did recently chat with Isles GM Garth Snow, but it doesn’t sound like anything developed. "All indications are that we’re headed to free agency with Kyle,’’ Brisson said Monday.

- In a perfect world I think the New York Rangers would love to bring back pending UFA defenseman Keith Yandle but there haven’t been any contract talks because the Blueshirts would have to move out money before they even pick up the phone with Yandle’s agent. So unless the Rangers are able to move out some cap space soon, all signs point to Yandle becoming a free agent for the first time in his career. There shouldn’t be any shortage of interest in a puck-moving, power-play stud like him.

much more including Andrew Ladd, Cam Ward and many others...