- Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke is thinking about having his own personal trade deadline date, to make it easier on his players.
“It’s to the point where I’m debating doing the same thing I do at Christmas, starting our own trade freeze 10 days before, that’s how distracting it is,” said Burke. “Clarke MacArthur has been traded 10 times. (Mikhail) Grabovski’s been traded 12 times. (Nikolai) Kulemin has been traded. Luke Schenn has been traded 50 times. I think it’s remarkable the players keep their focus.”
“I think the trade deadline is hard on players, but I think it’s murder on players in Toronto,” said Burke. “We’re just going to do this 10 days earlier so our players can relax. I don’t know if that’s the right answer because I don’t want to tie my hands if there’s some (trade) we can do. This is crazy here.”
- Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren:
“There wasn’t anything that was pitched to us that . . . would have made us as good a team as what’s on the board right now,” general manager Paul Holmgren said in a conference call from the team’s training facility in Voorhees. “We just felt more comfortable with our team the way it is, and quite frankly, since we’ve added the two defensemen, we’ve all felt that way.”
- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Blues were not able to make any “non-lateral moves” before the deadline yesterday due to their ownership situation. Blues GM Doug Armstrong was only allowed to make dollar-for-dollar moves because their budget is restricted until the sale of the team is complete.
“We were trying to see what type of depth we could add to our group and there wasn’t a proper fit there,” Armstrong said. “I went in not expecting a lot of transactions, and at the end of the day, it didn’t seem like we were involved in much.”
- Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News: The Red Wings called up highly touted Brendan Smith. Nicklas Lidstrom is questionable tonight with a sore ankle, and Kyle Quincey is out with a sore groin issue. Johan Franzen practiced on the 3rd line yesterday, but it’s not known if he’ll remain there for tonight.
