League-wide negotiating window approaches

Free agents are free to communicate with all NHL teams beginning at 9:01 pm PT tonight in advance of free agency, which opens at 9:00 AM PT on Friday, July 5.

Los Angeles has three unrestricted free agents in Rob Scuderi, Dustin Penner and Brad Richardson.

Pittsburgh isn’t expected to use the window to communicate heavily with Scuderi, who won the Stanley Cup as a Penguin in 2009, according to Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Talks continue to sign Scuderi to an extension in Los Angeles.

Via Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times on Friday:

“All I can say is we’re still working on it,” Lombardi said by telephone on Friday. “It’s a priority at the draft to meet with his agent.

“If we don’t have some indication on where he stands by the end of the draft, then I think we’ve got to reassess.”

Immediately following the draft it appeared as though little had changed in negotiations, according to assistant general manager Ron Hextall, who could not offer a timeline of when a hypothetical Scuderi signing might take place.

“We’re still working on it, and we hope to get it done,” he told LA Kings Insider.

Dillman also provided an update following the draft:

Lombardi indicated, via email, that he was continuing to negotiate with soon-to-be unrestricted defenseman Rob Scuderi’s camp and that they had come back to him with a workable number.

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