News of the Colorado Avalanche - Links around the NHL - June 25th, 2013

Patrick Roy told ESPN that he is leaning towards Nathan MacKinnon and would like to play him on the third line at Center.

"It would be tough for us not to take MacKinnon," Roy told ESPN The Magazine. "MacKinnon is ready to play tomorrow."

Roy didn't rule out trading the pick and said there's been plenty of interest from other teams since word spread that Colorado was open to a deal. Roy has a say in personnel with the Avalanche as the coach and vice president of hockey operations.

"We have received a lot of calls. [Avalanche executive] Joe [Sakic] has received some. I have received some," Roy said. "It's important for us to see, 'What can we do to make our team better?' We have to look at all options. We can't just close our eyes and say, 'Let's just take a player.'"

Here is video of an interview with Joe Sakic who says that if the Draft was today, right now, they'd take Nathan MacKinnon.

Gaunce has a new deal.

The Dallas Stars have secured two more pending restricted free agents, signing forward Matt Fraser and defenseman Cameron Gaunce to one-year, two-way contracts, the team announced on Monday.

The NHL has new Stanley Cup Champions.

Johnny Boychuk’s eyes were empty windows, and you could see clear through them to somewhere else. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say? "We were just trying to," he started, then stopped, in a corner of the Boston Bruins locker room, just after the end. "We were just talking about what happened. I don’t know. It’s a shock. I don’t even know what to tell you. This is probably one of the worst feelings you could ever have."

The Bruins were so close. They had climbed, and they were up 2-1 with a little over two minutes left in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final, on a goal by Milan Lucic. They had unknotted the game with a little over seven minutes left, and they’re the Boston Bruins. They are built to hold up in heavy weather. The Chicago Blackhawks were thinking about Game 7, too, but they had pulled their goaltender. They had a little over two minutes, after all.