Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Wednesday with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick and was asked if there will be movement soon. Friedman states that while teams are looking to make moves, there are still too many teams in the race to do anything.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Scott Laughlin: “We were just talking to Dan Rosen about the quarter pole of the NHL season, which of course, we’re going to hit tomorrow night (Thursday night0 and at that point, and whether it’s that point, or whether it’s U.S. Thanksgiving, or, as El Gordo says, Friedge always looks at November, circled on the calendar, as the time when GM start to take inventory of their lot in life.
Do you expect business to pick up here in the next couple of days, maybe even couple of weeks, with regards to some movement? Because there are some teams right now that, unfortunately, are starting to fall back, and we obviously know it will be an uphill battle the rest of the way.”
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Elliotte Friedman: “I do, Scott. The thing is, though, that they’re still, I mean, who’s really out of it? I mean, Calgary is, yes. That’s the team they lost again night. But other than that, there aren’t a lot of teams that are really out of it. And as a result, I think it’s harder to get movement when there are so many teams that are still like, ‘Nope, we’re still in the race.’
I think the Flames are kind of waiting for anyone out there to make them an offer that makes them think. They’re just waiting for that. And when that occurs, I have no doubt that they will act. But until that happens, they’re going to wait it out.
And look, like, Toronto is a team that was looking to do things, but they fell to a tie for last in the conference after Buffalo beat Edmonton on Monday. They won again night, and they’re certainly not going to be waving the white flag. So I think the big issue is, like, look at a team like the Islanders. I think at the beginning of the year, everyone kind of saw them as someone who would be a team that could eventually sell, and the people were kind of waiting to see what would happen.
Well, they just had a really successful road trip. It was quite a crazy last-minute night, and so you’re not convinced now the Islanders are going to be a seller. So Calgary, from this perspective, is kind of sitting pretty right now, waiting for someone to make them say yes.
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But other than that, Scott, even though I think there’s a will to do things, there’s just not a lot of people saying we’re out.”
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