Welcome to the PHT Morning Skate, a collection of links from the NHL and around the hockey world. Have a link you want to submit for the PHT Morning Skate? Email us at phtblog@nbcsports.
• “On the radio, McGuire has talked for years about a seven-player profile for building a Stanley Cup champion. That’s two elite centres, a power forward, a specialized forward, shutdown defenceman, an elite puck-moving defenceman and a top starting goalie. McGuire believes the organization has four of those pieces in place already and may have the other ones i the organization. He doesn’t believe this group is far away.” [Sun Media]
• The Wild is buying out the final four years of the contracts for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. [PHT]
• Wild GM Bill Guerin on the team’s future post Parise/Suter buyouts: “We’ll get some cap relief this summer, and after that it will be a little more difficult. But we just felt like doing both ... it was the right time. We know how much they’ve meant to this team and the city, so these are not easy decisions to make, but you have to make them and you stand by them.” [Wild]
• Suter will now be a free agent on July 28. Here’s why the Flyers make sense for the veteran defenseman. [Broad Street Hockey]
• “To summarize, the Edmonton Oilers have traded for a player who’s name contains immense weight, but who’s talent no longer matches up with it. They’ve acquired a player who gave a shortlist of teams, from a team who was desperate to get money off the books. They were the only team of the shortlist who seemed to have any actual interest in the player.” [Faceoff Circle]
• A look at what Caleb Jones can bring to the Blackhawks’ blue line. [Second City Hockey]
• Which players from every NHL team might the LA Kings target this offseason? [Mayor’s Manor]
• Saroya Tinker of the Toronto Six is hosting a new podcast about athlete activism. [The Ice Garden]
• It seems as if trade rumors have followed Evgeni Malkin throughout his Penguins career. [The Hockey Writers]
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy