The Holiday trade freeze is almost here
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Saturday Headline on the Holiday trade freeze only a couple days away.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Ron MacLean: “The holiday trade freeze is upon us.
Friedman: “Yes, it’s coming up in a couple of days. And there are some teams, remember when Brian Burke was a general manager, he even extended it longer because he just thought it was a bad time to train people around this time.
You know, basically, a lot of teams said that St. Louis was a team that was really looking to do things. Now, maybe they’ve made their coaching change and might calm down a bit, but the Blues were definitely active seeing what was out there.
Colorado just traded Tomas Tatar to Seattle, and there are a bunch of teams paranoid that the Avalanche are really looking to add. I don’t know if cap-wise they’re going to be able to do it right now but there is a suspicion that at some point they will.
The goaltending market is heating up
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Saturday Headline on the goaltending market heating up.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“The goaltending market has gotten a little bit hotter for a couple of reasons. Earlier today. The Carolina Hurricanes put Antti Raanta on waivers. We’ll see where that goes tomorrow, but they’re definitely looking around.
The LA Kings have Pheonix Copley getting an MRI. he was injured in practice yesterday. The belief is he’s going to be out for a little bit of time. So they might look for a backup for Cam Talbot if they’re, if they don’t want to necessarily just do it with David Rittich.
And also you know, Edmonton Calvin Pickard is playing really well, right? I hope this isn’t the kiss of death, but Calvin Pickard is playing tonight. He’s played really well and I’m not convinced they’re going to do it but they obviously have been taking a look at things.
I think a couple of names you’re going to hear out there. Montreal obviously, they have an extra goalie, but also I think Spencer Martin for Columbus. They have an extra goalie now and Martin, Ron’s neighbor, has played very well honestly.”
Gary Bettman’s comments about the Olympic arena were heard
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on Saturday Headline on the goaltending market heating up.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Ron MacLean: “How about the Olympics? News out of Milan.”
Friedman: “Yes. So there’s going to be a meeting this week between the league the Players Association, the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation’s to look at it.
I doubt you’d see a deal this week. I think talking to everybody involved, it would be a surprise. But Ron, the one thing I think has absolutely happened here, is if Gary Bettman’s goal at the Board of Governors was to shame everybody there and to getting the construction going a lot faster. It worked. Like that message was received.
I think if they don’t get it done, it’ll be played in Turin where we were in 2006. But I think if Batman’s goal was to light a, get everybody started there, it certainly worked. It was heard and I think some people were embarrassed about it.”