from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

- The Arizona (insert old joke here) Coyotes are ready to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year and it sure sounds changes are being pondered at every level _ including the front office.

While coach Dave Tippett is highly-regarded and it doesn’t sound like he’s going anywhere, the word is Arizona GM Don Maloney is under the microscope because the Coyotes haven’t qualifed for the playoffs since they lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Final 4-1 in 2012.

Not only are the Coyotes looking for a new place to play because of their tentative lease agreement in Glendale, the organization needs to have playoff success to help create interest in a difficult marketplace....

- The Tampa Bay Lightning and forward Steven Stamkos don’t sound like they’re any closer to an agreement on a new deal so this one is going to drag into the off-season. Maybe the Bolts will change their approach if they go deep in the playoffs after advancing to the Stanley Cup final last year but right now it doesn’t appear a deal will happen anytime soon. The Bolts are going to have to weigh their options once the season ends and maybe they want to see just how far Stamkos can take them. “There’s no question he’s probably the most valuable free agent since Zach Parise and Ryan Suter,” a league executive told Insider Trading. “Those two got $98 million but you can’t give 13-year deals anymore.” Since the most a player can get on the free agent market is a seven-year deal don’t rule out the possibility of the Bolts signing Stamkos to an eight-year contract and then moving him in a sign/trade contract. “You see those kinds of moves in the NBA all the time. That would get (Tampa) a lot more in return than they’d get if he walked away,” added the executive.

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