Sabres could use a second line center
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News: The Buffalo Sabres could use a second line center. Making a trade like that isn’t easy for salary reasons, you need a find a team that wants to move one, and then you need to meet that asking price to acquire that player.
Names that could be available and of interested include Los Angeles Kings Jeff Carter, Minnesota Wild’s Charlie Coyle and St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn.
Too many holes for the Oilers to fix
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Darren Dreger was on NBCSN and was asked about the Edmonton Oilers bigger picture. They needed some depth on the blueline and they acquired it at the cost of top-nine forward.
“The issue in Edmonton though is that there are too many holes in the ship and Chiarelli can’t plug them all. When he held his media conference after making these two deals, I mean, he looked haggard. He looked tired. And he’s got to be feeling the heat and the pressure of the disappointment of this organization. Because as I say, he can’t fix everything.”
Dreger adds that half of their forwards are not contributing players. If they don’t make the playoffs, management changes could be coming.
“So Chiarelli is going to do his level best to be as active as he can up until the February 25 trade deadline. If he doesn’t get something accomplished – if this team doesn’t do as well as they need to do in the second half, they don’t qualify for the playoffs – well, then ownership is going to have to consider management change.”
