ST. PAUL, Minn. — In need of centers, the Minnesota Wild traded defenseman Shawn Belle to Montreal for center Corey Locke and signed minor-leaguer Krys Kolanos to a two-way contract on Friday.
Both young players have spent the majority of their careers in the American Hockey League. The 24-year-old Locke had 85 goals and 144 assists in four seasons with the Hamilton Bulldogs. He was Montreal’s fourth-round pick in 2003 and was a two-time MVP of the Ontario Hockey League.
Kolanos had 30 goals and 33 assists in 63 games for the Quad City Flames in the AHL last season. The 26-year-old has played in 115 career NHL games with Phoenix and Edmonton and scored the game-winning goal in overtime that lifted Boston College to the national title against North Dakota in 2001.
The Wild need centers after losing Pavol Demitra, who signed a two-year deal with Vancouver on Thursday.
CAPITALS: Washington re-signed forward Boyd Gordon to a one-year contract on Friday. Gordon, 24, had seven goals and nine assists in 67 games last season. He also won 55.8 percent of his faceoffs, the ninth-best percentage in the NHL. Gordon, a first-round pick of the Capitals in 2002, has 15 goals and 37 assists in 204 career games with Washington.
LIGHTNING: Jay Feaster resigned Friday as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, four years after the team he helped assemble won the franchise’s only Stanley Cup championship. The Lightning won two Southeastern Division titles and made the playoffs four times in Feaster’s five full seasons as GM. But Tampa Bay finished with the NHL’s worst record this year, and Feaster’s role diminished following a change of ownership.
… Free agent center Chris Gratton re-signed with Tampa Bay on Friday. Gratton, who signed a one-year contract, has 214 career goals. He has had seven seasons with at least 15 goals and 12 seasons with 10 or more.
The 33-year-old forward has played in 1,068 games over 15 seasons with Philadelphia, Buffalo, Phoenix, Colorado, Florida and Tampa Bay, which selected him third overall in the 1993 NHL draft.
SHARKS: San Jose re-signed center Marcel Goc to a one-year, $775,000 contract Friday, avoiding arbitration with the defensive specialist. Goc, a three-year veteran, had five goals and three assists in 51 games last season. Goc, a former first-round pick, was among 15 NHL players who filed for salary arbitration last week.
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