According to a published report in the Dallas Observer, Brett Hull is attempting to bring Wayne Gretzky and Mike Modano on board to put together a group to purchase the Dallas Stars from owner Tom Hicks. Other sources report that Modano is not even aware of the situation whilst Hull and Gretzky have not spoken on the subject in over six weeks.

Finnish SM-Liiga play off quarterfinal results - 5th games: Jyväskylä - Kärpät Oulu 3:4 in OT, series 3:2; KaIPa Kuopio - Tappara Tampere 4:3 in OT, series 3:2; IFK Helsinki - Hämeenlinna 2:3, series 2:3.
Russian KHL play off semifinal results: Western conference - 4th game: Yaroslavl - Balashikha 6:1, series 2:2. Eastern conference - 3rd game: Kazan - Ufa 3:2 in OT, series 3:0.
Swedish Elitserien play off semifinal results - 3rd games: Skelleftea - HV 71 2:3 in OT, series 1:2, Linköping - Djurgaarden 2:0, series 1:2.

Slovak goalie Jaroslav Halak of Montreal has been named the first star of the week in the NHL. The second and third stars went to two Finnish players - forward Saku Koivu of Anaheim and Boston goalie Tuukka Rask. The 24-year old Halak recorded two shutouts in games against Philadelphia and Buffalo. He improved his goals against average to 2.31 and his save percentage to .927.

The Belarussian national team made a head coach change. The head coaching job now belongs to Eduard Zankovec, previously assistant coach with the natinonal team and Russian club team SKA Saint Petersburg. Zankovec took over from Mikhail Zacharov, who led the Belarussians at the Olympics, but is the head coach of Ukraine. Zankovec might be able to work assistants Dave Lewis, Alexander Andriyevsky or Vladimír Tsyplyakov.

Swedish national team forward Linus Ömark, who has recently concluded his contract obligation with Russian Dynamo Moscow, is set to arrive in the NHL. The last year's world championship in Switzerland participant has, according to the server hockeykanalen.se, signed a two-year contract with Edmonton. Oilers drafted Ömark 97th overall in the 2007 NHL draft. The Canadian club wanted the Swedish forward last season but Ömark decide to sign with Dynamo Moscow instead.

German DEL play off quarterfinal results - 4th games: Nuremberg - Hannover 4:1, series 2:2; Ingolstadt - Frankfurt 3:2 in OT, final series score 3:1; Augsburg - Eisbären Berlin 3:5, series 2:2.
Swiss League play off semifinal result - 6th game: Zug - Geneva 2:7, final series score 2:4. Geneva will meet Bern in the league final.

Milan Hejduk of Colorado Avalanche reached 700 point threshold and became the 7th Czech player in the NHL history to do so. He contributed to the Colorado win on Sunday against San Jose with two assists. The 34-year old Olympic champion from Nagano, who has spent his entire NHL carrier with the Avalanche, has reached the milestone in his 837th game. Hejduk is also second highest Czech goal scorer in the NHL history with 335 goals right behind Jaromir Jagr (646 goals) and has also added 365 assists.

Washington Capitals have won the President's trophy for the best team of the NHL regular season for the first time in history. They can thank the San Jose 4:5 overtime loss to Colorado on Sunday. San Jose is the second best team in the league standings and has 107 points with three games left and Capitals have 114 with four more games left.

Last year the most sought after player was Swedish goalie Jonas Gustafsson and this year it appears to be Finnish goalie Jussi Rynnäs. The 22-year old goalie has apparently attracted the interest of at least five NHL teams. According to ESPN the interested teams are Dallas, Anaheim, Edmonton, Philadelphia and Montreal.

The Swedish hockey federation is trying to make sure that their young players stay within the Swedish hockey program as long as possible. The federation will offer talented young players national team contracts which would obligate the players to stay within the Swedish hockey program until the age of 22. Only then they will be allowed to leave for the NHL. Players without such contract will not be able to play at junior world championships and if a player breaches his contract he will be fined $100,000 according to CBS.

Slovak national team forward Jozef Stümpel is going to move within the KHL. Stümpel is ending his stay with Kazakh Barys Astana and, according to the paper Sport-Express, has the former Los Angeles, Boston and Florida forward reached agreement with Belarussian Dynamo Minsk. The same club has been reported to be negotiating with Stümpel's countryman and friend Zigmund Palffy.

The Russian transfer market opens officially on May 1, however there are already interesting speculations regarding upcoming deals. One such speculation is regarding the German national team goal of Russian descent Dimitrij Kotschnev, who's been playing for Spartak Moscow until now. According to the paper Sport-Express Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is very interested in his services.

Slovak forward Marcel Hossa might be changing teams in the KHL. The Dynamo Riga player has an offer from Kazan, however Riga is still interested in his services. Hossa had an offer to move last year as well however decided to stay. According to the paper Sovetskiy Sport, the former Montreal and New York Rangers forward is still deciding, but already has a verbal understanding with Kazan.

Yunost Minsk has won the Belarussian Extraliga title for the fifth time in history. As the best Minsk team - Dynamo does not participate in the league Yunost met Shakhtar Soligorsk in the play off final. The Minsk team won the series in seven games. Artem Senkevich scored the winning goal in the overtime of the seventh game.

Los Angeles Kings signed forward Brandon Kozun, who's currently the captain of Calgary Hitmen in the WHL. The Kings drafted him in the 6th round of the 2009 draft. Kozun has dual citizenship and has decided to play for the Canadian national team for which he played in the last World Junior Champtionships.

Colorado Avalanche has made contract offers on Saturday to two Boston University defencemen - Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen. The former was picked by the Avalance 14th overall in 2007 and the latter in the second round of the same draft. Cohen scored the winning goal of the last year's NCAA final and was named the tournament MVP.