The Montreal Canadiens announced today that they have agreed to terms on a contract with defenseman Nathan Beaulieu. The club’s 2011 first round pick gets a three-year deal and it’s very possible he steps in to help out in 2012-13. He already went through a training camp with the Canadiens in 2011 and is coming off a pretty impressive season [...]

Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli told the Toronto Sun that, when he looks at history, rental players rarely pay immediate dividends for a club: “If you look back, on average, those types of players haven’t left a deep impact right away when they change scenery.” This could indicate that Chiarelli is looking to add a few small [...]

The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont writes that the Bruins may want to fill the roles vacated by three guys who left last year’s championship squad Mark Recchi, Michael Ryder and Tomas Kaberle – and suggested a handful of players they could trade for. Dupont suggests Ray Whitney might fill Recchi’s leadership role, and this isn’t the first time the B’s have been [...]

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had plenty of trade rumors flying around in the past couple weeks, including said interest in James van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter and both Ryan and Getzlaf from the Ducks. Now, Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke is said to be targeting, Ryan Malone. And Damien Cox of the Toronto Star believes the Tampa Bay Lightning may be more than a [...]

  The Boston Bruins haven’t had any contract talks with Chris Kelly yet, leading the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch to speculate whether the Ottawa Senators will target him if he hits free agency. Garrioch points out, ” Kelly makes his off-season home in Ottawa and it would only make sense for the Senators to try to bring him back if hes available.” [...]

1:14 PM According to Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch, the Columbus Blue Jackets will trade Derick Brassard at some point: “Sooner or later, probably later, the Blue Jackets will trade Derick Brassard. His career has stalled, and his agent, Allan Walsh, has made a trade all but inevitable.” It’s not like there hasn’t been a fair amount of interest [...]

Elliotte Friedman of the CBC reports that Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford seems confident he will be able to trade Tomas Kaberle ”in a month or two as long as the defenceman starts playing better”. Fortunately for the Hurricanes, it’s not like the experienced blueliner can play that much worse. Rutherford has confirmed he’s talking to other teams about potential [...]

A roundup of the activity over the weekend: Sportsnet’s Rhett Warrener is hearing Cory Sarich wants out of Calgary, which wouldn’t be a huge surprise given his reduced role as of late. But the Calgary Sun’s Eric Francis tweeted about talking to Sarich and his agent and they both said he hasn’t asked for a trade, not has he [...]

The Chicago Blackhawks have more than $4 million in cap space after sending Rostislav Olesz to the minors. And that money may go toward trading for a blueliner, the Ottawa Sun‘s Bruce Garrioch writes. There’s a pretty high demand for defensemen right now, but guys like Keith Ballard, Matt Carle and Tomas Kaberle are being talked about on the rumor mill. The defenseman market could [...]

Tomas Kaberle was a healthy scratch yesterday, which was a bit of a surprise but, given his poor play, it was perhaps warranted. There’s been buzz per ESPN Insider that the Carolina Hurricanes want to move Kaberle, but his $4.25 million cap hit for the next three years may it highly improbably. That is unless they offer other [...]