A Day in the NHL: Crosby and Quick Re-Sign Long Term, Changes to Salary Cap and Icing Coming?

-We’ll start with a couple of notes from the NHL: The Salary Cap will be up to $70.2-million for next season, with the floor raised to $54.2-million. That is up from $64.3-million and $48.3-million respectively. The Cap is only in effect until a new CBA has been agreed upon however. Then the new regulations will take over. Speaking of which, CBA Negotiations have begun in New York between the NHL and the Players Association. The NHL has also requested that the AHL try a form of hybrid icing during the early parts of next season.

-The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby came to an agreement yesterday on a 12-year, $104.4-million extension. Crosby is 24, so the deal will likely make him a Penguin for life.  A Penguin who has already won a Stanley Cup, Hart Trophy, Art Ross, and Rocket Richard awards, Crosby has 609 points in 434 career games.

–Jonathan Quick is a pretty big deal in Los Angeles. So much so, that the Kings’ Twitter account proclaimed that it will be ’11 years in total of our goalie being better than yours’ following an agreement on a 10-year contract extension. Quick, of course, was a Vezina finalist and Conn Smythe winner this past year for the Kings. An extension for Captain Dustin Brown will become priority now (he has two years left on his deal), as the Kings’ just have one free agent of note (Dustin Penner) ready to hit the market on July 1st.

–Cory Schneider also agreed (in principal) to a new deal with the Vancouver Canucks yesterday. Schneider’s new deal is for three years and $12-million. The future of Robert Luongo remains in limbo as well, as it seems that the Florida Panthers are the only ones investigating into acquiring their former netminder.

-The other goalie to re-sign yesterday was Tuukka Rask with the Boston Bruins. Rask, expected to be the starter for next season, got a one-year $3.5-million deal to play in Tim Thomas’ absence. Rask’s season-high in games played is 45 (2009/10) when he won 22 games, had a GAA of 1.97 and a save percentage of 0.931.

-Whether Ryan Suter leaves or not, the Nasvhille Predators were able to retain some of their veteran presence on the blueline heading in to next. Defenceman Hal Gill signed a new two-year, $4-million contract with the club after being acquired at this year’s Trade Deadline.

–Scott Nichol will stay with the St. Louis Blues. The two sides came to an agreement on a one-year, $650,000 deal.

-The Columbus Blue Jackets and Nikita Nikitin made a deal yesterday, as Nikitin gets a reported two-year, $4.3-million deal from the club. He was acquired through an early-season trade with the Blues.

–Brian Lee will spend two more years with the Tampa Bay Lightning as the two sides worked out a deal yesterday. Lee was a deadline acquisition from the Ottawa Senators.

-The Carolina Hurricanes may be in the market for a backup, as Brian Boucher will be out 4-to-6 months with shoulder surgery. What the injury is, and which shoulder it was to is not known, but that leaves the role of Cam Ward’s backup wide open come training camp with Boucher’s unknown status.