Veteran forward Tim Brent has decided to retire, reports Bill Doucet of the Cambridge Times. The 32 year old is beginning his post-hockey career in real estate in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he spent part of his career. Brent spent parts of seven seasons in the NHL with Anaheim (who twice drafted him), Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto, and Carolina, where he last played in 2012-13. Overall, he played in 207 NHL games, recording 21 goals and 27 assists.
Other news and notes from around the NHL:
- Detroit opted to take goalie Petr Mrazek to arbitration earlier this week and as George Malik of Kukla’s Korner writes, there’s a sizable gap between the two sides at the moment. Mrazek is apparently seeking close to $6MM while the Wings are offering closer to half that amount. Despite that, Mrazek’s camp is hopeful that they can get a deal done without going through the arbitration process. Arbitration hearings will take place between July 20th and August 4th.
- While the Kings were looking to make organizational changes after being ousted in the first round of the playoffs, the majority of them have come off the ice in terms of small philosophical changes, writes Josh Cooper of Puck Daddy. Given their relative cap constraints (they have just shy of $1.8MM in space according to Cap Friendly), Los Angeles has only been able to add Jeff Zatkoff, Tom Gilbert, Zach Trotman, and Teddy Purcell, only the latter of which can be viewed as a potential impact addition.
- The widely anticipated Pavel Datsyuk contract with SKA St. Petersburg was officially announced by the KHL team today as the Coyotes have approved and signed his player transfer card. It’s a two year deal believed to be worth roughly $7.6MM US. Though he will play in Russia and won’t be paid by Arizona, the Coyotes will still be charged for his entire cap hit of $7.5MM for 2016-17.