TSN: Chris Johnston notes that teams are having their pro meetings, looking at teams and going over who could be potential fits.
“But the word that I’m getting is that it’s jammed up because it’s just not a lot of clarity in the standings. There’s not a lot of true sellers. And so while there are lots of teams out there looking to add to their group it seems like it’s going to be a late developing trade market.”
TSN: Darren Dreger on TSN 1200 radio when asked about when we’ll start seeing some trades.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “And on insider trading, you guys touched on this a little bit, just, ’tis the season, but the reason why it’s we’re not there yet, there’s just so much parity. There’s so many teams that don’t think that they’re done yet and there’s so few teams that are clearly selling.
So when will they start to loosen up? How much closer do we need to get to this trade deadline before we see, maybe that first big one and that gets everything moving?
Dreger: “Well after the All-Star break, and maybe not even at that point. You know, again, in the last number of years we see teams jump two, three weeks outside of March trade deadline, this year, March 8th, and so I don’t think that much is going to change there.
And it comes down to two things Lloyd. It’s parity, yes of course, but it’s the salary cap, right? So teams that are cap teams, contending teams, be it playoff or top contending teams, they’re normally cap teams. Winnipeg has some cap space, but you, you want that money paid down as much as possible before you, you want to make that move.
And you know, it’s, it’s a combination of hoping the price comes down a little bit, maybe a first-round pick turns into a second-round pick and that becomes more affordable to you. But you know, my point of the NHL standings and the parity, you know there’s so many teams that are still in the mix, like let’s look at the Calgary Flames here for a moment, right. And Philadelphia is there. You know, those are two teams that we defined earlier in the year as being sellers.
Well, now they’re modified sellers and and probably if you’re looking at Calgary, more so that’s because you know ownership as always would and should have some influence. So the Calgary Flames are still trying to figure out what they are. Are they a playoff worthy team?”