Blues sign Colton Parayko to five-year extension

The St. Louis Blues signed defenseman Colton Parayko to a $27.5 million, five-year contract just before the sides were set to go to arbitration on Thursday. Only sharpshooting winger Vladimir Tarasenko is signed longer as the Blues have captain Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester and Parayko locked up as their top three on defense. "Colton coming on the scene the last couple of years gives us a real good right side now obviously with Alex and Colton for a number of years moving forward," general manager Doug Armstrong said. Armstrong said if Parayko had gone to arbitration, the contract would have been for two years and the Blues could have worked something out in 2019 before he hit unrestricted free agency.

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  NHL notebook: St. Louis Blues lock up Colton Parayko

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  Colton Parayko deal gives Blues incredible value on young star

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Vaakanainen lives up to skating reputation in first camp with Bruins

Urho Vaakanainen was billed as a smooth-skating, solid defenseman when the Bruins selected him in the middle of the first round in last month’s draft. That’s exactly what the 18-year-old D-man put on display at his first chance to participate in Bruins Development Camp earlier this month as one of the younger players taking his first paces with the B’s organization. Vaakanainen skated with ease and smoothness and didn’t have much in the way of panic when he was breaking the puck out of the zone during workouts. To be sure, it was clear that many of the tools are there for the Finnish prospect. Bruins assistant GM Scott Bradley had likened him to Hall of Famer Paul Coffey for his skating ability

Islanders-Tavares standstill: Why it’s not panic time yet

It has been three weeks since John Tavares became eligible to sign a contract extension with the Islanders, and yet he still remains without a long-term commitment to the team. The 26-year-old has one year left on his contract at a club-friendly $5.5 million salary-cap hit, and general manager Garth Snow likely knows it would be prudent to trade him sooner rather than later instead of letting him walk away next summer for nothing. It also has been considered not out of the realm of possibility that Tavares could play this year out with Snow listening to all the calls that come in. If no deal is made, then Snow will hold out hope to still re-sign Tavares before he can reach unrestricted free agency next July 1.