Patrick Marleau and the Sharks are both interested in signing a contract extension. Will there be room?

The Panthers are reportedly in talks with Jay Bouwmeester to extend his contract. That Penner/Vanek thing is scaring the hell out of a lot of teams. 

Steve Sullivan underwent a second back surgery. He is on the shelf until December 1 at the very earliest and a more likely scenario is closer to Christmas. The Preds will keep him off long-term IR, but don't read anything into that – that only means that they desperately need his salary to count so they can remain above the NHL salary floor.

An update on Daniel Tjarnqvist – TSN is claiming that the player's rep has stated that he has not yet officially signed the deal with Ak Bars Kazan. I believe TSN enjoys bunking news that other people report, but that the news soon becomes "official" and TSN at that time claims credit for breaking it. Examples that come to mind – Micheal Peca (they said no deal was done, it was pending a physical – most other outlets said it was done but for a formality), Alexander Perezhogin and how he had not yet signed to play in Russia, the NHL lockout ending (I believe Helene Elliot out of California broke it, TSN bunked it as not officially over…and then proudly announced the lockout ending a couple days later when the t's were crossed), etc etc. I love TSN – they are the best for breaking NHL news. By far. It's just that tiny little thing that they do that sometimes bugs me. Maybe I just rolled out of bed the wrong way this morning.