Penguins/NHL
Lack of developments over the past 48 hours have pointed to Sergei Gonchar hitting the open market on July 1 and with less than 24 hours before free agency begins, that will be the case.
J.P. Barry the agent for Sergei Gonchar tells Inside Pittsburgh Sports that No new talks of “substance” have taken place today with Pens GM Ray Shero.
When asked by Inside Pittsburgh Sports, if he {Barry} expects Gonchar to enter the free agent market, Barry said, “Yes”.
Meanwhile, an interesting development is that Gonchar’s camp appears somewhat open to accepting a trade of his rights, if the Penguins approach them and it’s the right opportunity.
“The rights issue is up to ray, ” Barry told Inside Pittsburgh Sports.com. As of 2:00 p.m., the Penguins have not approached Gonchar’s camp about a trade.
In fact, they haven’t heard from Shero today. Gonchar has a no trade clause and dictates where he goes, if the Penguins look to find a suitor.
While it appears that moving Gonchar’s rights is unlikely, there continues to be word that 4-to-5 teams expect to target Gonchar aggressively. There could be some developments and one of those teams tries to make a play for Gonchar tonight and get an early jump on negotiating with him.
more to come
