TSN’s Hockey Insiders on the Jets’ early talks with their captain, Jack Roslovic signing in Edmonton, why Bill Guerin has no regrets about Kirill Kaprizov’s deal, where the pending UFA spotlight now focuses on, and the latest on Carter Hart and Alex Formenton.

James Duthie: Full slate of Insiders for you today: Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger from Winnipeg, which is where we’ll start.

Kyle Connor is now signed long-term with the Jets, so attention focuses to the captain, Adam Lowry, have those talks already started, Dregs?

Darren Dreger: They have. Not full-scale negotiations just yet, I would say preliminary talks between Lowry’s agent Craig Oster and Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.

Look, Adam Lowry, appreciably, is now a top priority for the Jets organization. When you think of the strength of the Jets, past and present and moving forward into the future, based on their experience and their nucleus, Adam Lowry is a key element of the foundation and a strong leader on and off the ice entering the final year of his five-year contract.

I would expect negotiations to begin sooner rather than later.

Chris Johnston: Jack Roslovic endured a long summer and early fall as an unsigned free agent before finally landing with the Edmonton Oilers in the middle of their home opener on Wednesday night, but I think it’s interesting how he got here.

Really when it came down to this last few days with the season beginning and Roslovic was looking at his options, he could’ve made more money going elsewhere.

Ultimately, he opted to sign with the Oilers in part because of the winning culture, the opportunity to earn ice time with some of the top players in the league and what he believes to be an opportunity to push his own career to a new level, being around the culture in Edmonton.

The Oilers didn’t have the kind of money that other teams did, and with the $1.5 million deal, they managed to convince him that this is the place to get his career back going, get back on track and prove it, essentially, heading into what could be another free agent summer next year.

Duthie: Money left on the table a big theme in Edmonton this week. With the Connor McDavid contract, and I would say expected numbers for the likes of Kyle Connor and Jack Eichel elsewhere re-signing – Pierre, does [Minnesota Wild general manager] Bill Guerin have any regrets around $17 million a year for Kirill Kaprizov?

Pierre LeBrun: Zero regrets, and he could not be more emphatic when I chatted with him on Wednesday, minutes after the Jack Eichel contract was made official.

He knows what’s happening elsewhere around the league, but for Guerin and the Wild, $17 million a year is what it took to get their superstar to stay in Minnesota, and [Guerin] can absolutely sleep like a baby at night.

As [Guerin] said, the worst-case scenario would be [Kaprizov] leaving, that’s a lot worse than paying him $17 million.

The fact of the matter is that it’s hard for Minnesota to attract free agents on July 1, they have to overpay to keep their guy, and you look at the rest of their core – Matt Boldy signed at $7 million, Joel Eriksson Ek at $5.25 million, Brock Faber at $8.5 million, they have a lot of decent contracts in and around the monster one.

Duthie: With the likes of Kaprizov, of course McDavid, Connor, Eichel all done, is there a next wave of pending unrestricted free agents who may re-sign with their teams coming?

LeBrun: Yeah, three guys I’m keeping an eye on are Adrian Kempe, Alex Tuch and Martin Necas.

Let’s start with Kempe and the Los Angeles Kings, there’s a lot of pressure there to get him signed. You know Anze Kopitar’s retiring at the end of the year, there has been ongoing dialogue between [Kempe’s agent] J.P. Barry and the Kings, nothing imminent, but certainly now that the big contracts around the league are done, that’ll have an impact on this negotiation. I think Connor’s deal at $12 million a year enters the conversation for the Kempe dialogue, just like William Nylander’s $11.5 million a year contract already was a part of that conversation, so we’ll see where that goes.

Tuch, I’m told, still “good dialogue” happening there [with the Buffalo Sabres] but nothing imminent.

Martin Necas is a little bit of a different situation – the player there, I’m told, wants to wait for the season to get going a little deeper and then he’ll green light his agent to go a little bit deeper in talks with the Colorado Avalanche. They’ve had preliminary discussions, but not full-fledged negotiations just yet.

Duthie: Other signing news: one of the former Team Canada World Junior Hockey players acquitted in the sexual assault trial – Michael McLeod – signed in Russia today. What’s the latest on Carter Hart?

Johnston: All indications are that he will start his comeback to pro hockey in North America. There’s been this window for these reinstated players since October 1 to explore options, talk to NHL teams, arrange visa type of issues in anticipation of next Wednesday,

when they are formally allowed to register contracts. With Hart, the expectation remains that he is going to sign – or at least arrive with the Vegas Golden Knights organization, that’s where he’ll likely begin, that’s where those conversations have been going and that can’t be finalized until next Wednesday.

Dreger: And a different path for 26-year-old Alex Formenton, he’s playing in Switzerland and he’d like to return to the NHL. There’s nothing imminent there.

We know Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios announced publicly that Formenton would not be coming back to Ottawa, but Staios has given Formenton’s agent Darren Ferris the permission to speak with other NHL clubs about the possibility of having his rights traded. So nothing imminent, but Formenton would also like to come back.