Dan’s Daily: Penguins & Karlsson Will Get Along; More UFAs Off the Board

A couple more NHL free agents are off the board. Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson put down reports of friction with Brent Burns and sounded excited to play with the star-studded Penguins. The Arizona Coyotes are shopping for land to build an arena, the Toronto Maple Leafs hope Martin Jones will provide some much-needed puck-stopping, and Noah Hanafin is now the NHL trade darling.

The Coyotes are shopping, begging, desperately searching. It’s all the same until someone throws in the towel and stops the fight.

Also, a national survey was released of the top hockey sites. The Hockey Now network and our city sites were absolutely snubbed.

They ranked the sites based on traffic. Based on their numbers, Pittsburgh Hockey Now gets as much as traffic as the Hockey News. We’d rank as the 13th biggest hockey site. Montreal would be the 16th, and Boston would be the 18th. Our network would rank No. 1, ahead of NHL.com.

Why they excluded you and me, I have no idea. I won’t link to it because they snubbed us. But thank you for reading every day!

Pittsburgh Penguins:

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: How will Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang co-exist? Karlsson met the media Wednesday and sounded excited about being just one of the stars instead of THE star of the Penguins roster.

Dave Molinari looked at the case of Nathan Legare. He proves how difficult it is to evaluate and develop talent. The rough road of creating Penguins prospects.

The Penguins filled the spot as head of their training and medical staff. It’s now Marty Lauzon’s job to keep the Penguins healthy.

Steelers Now:

Steelers and Mike Tomlin are bucking the NFL preseason trends. Here’s who will play in the first Steelers preseason game.

Training camp takeaways — the Steelers’ offense is expanding.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now:

Ke’Bryan Hayes brought the big stick Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough. The quickie Pittsburgh Pirates recap.

NHL Trade Talk, News & National Hockey Now:

Montreal Hockey Now: Who could be a good match for Jeff Petry? Perhaps the Dallas Stars? The Montreal Canadiens trade talk.

New Jersey Hockey Now: Cal Foote is off the board. He signed a two-way contract with the New Jersey Devils.

I know some Penguins fans wanted him. Yes, he has size and youth. Those two factors alone do not make a good hockey player, and–just as importantly–the WBS Penguins already project to have all five veteran slots filled.

NYI Hockey Now: It seems the Metro Division is always stout. Our Islanders beat writer doesn’t see great things — Why the New York Islanders will miss the playoffs.

The Athletic $: Noah Hanafin is next on the NHL trade block. With Karlsson to the Penguins, who will call the Calgary Flames about Hanafin?

Sportsnet: Toronto Maple Leafs needed secondary goaltending, but there wasn’t much left on the NHL UFA market, so they signed Martin Jones.

Arizona Sports: The Coyotes owner is buying land in Mesa. Or maybe Phoenix. Or Scottdale. The resident NHL couch surfers are trying to find a new arena.

Boston Hockey Now: For the first time in Jimmy Murphy’s long life, there’s no No. 1 center for the Boston =

And lastly, Vegas Hockey Now: The coming expectations for vindicated Stanley Cup winner Jack Eichel.