NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman a week ago on teams holding out players for trade-related reasons as it appears to be happening more frequently and further from the deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“I’m with you Jackie. I don’t mind it as long as the trade’s going to happen the next day or the day after. When it starts going as long as this is (which was a week ago when the interview happened), I don’t think I like it. I think a lot of people agree with me.
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Now the one thing that is key in this situation is I think (Jakob) Chychrun is okay with it. (Vladislav) Gavrikov, we’ll see how long this goes. I’ve heard that that one has been moving potentially closer (last week).
Chychrun, he understands I think. Like look, he’s got a history of injuries. It’s possible something small happened (two) weeks (ago). This was something to bubble wrap him a bit more. His trade value will never be higher. He’s had a phenominal year. He’s done everything he needs to do. They want to move him and he wants to be traded.
I get. I don’t think the players association is making an issue here. But I don’t think the coaches and teams are comfortable with it. I give a lot of credit to Arizona. They play really hard …. but they’re playing a lot of teams right on playoff line or are going for seeding or home ice advantage.
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I don’t think people like this and I’ll be curious to see the next time the commissioner speaks if he has a problem with it. In the past he said he doesn’t as long as the trade was imminent. We’ll see where this goes.”