- Pierre LeBrun of ESPN: Flyers GM Ron Hextall is preaching patience, but LeBrun thinks Hextall can’t wait much longer before making a trade or two.
“We’re not looking for a short-term fix,” Hextall said. “We’re looking for today and tomorrow but also for the future. So, we’re not going to do something short-term that’s going to hurt us down the road.
“In saying that, if something is there that makes sense, we’re certainly going to look at it. There’s been more talk lately , but nothing that makes sense for us at this point.”
- Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: The Senators will need to make a roster move if defenseman Marc Methot is able to return to the lineup this week. They could put Bobby Ryan and his broken finger on the IR. They could put someone on waivers, or they could trade one of their extra forwards: Colin Greening or Erik Condra. Several teams are interested in defenseman Patrick Weircioch. The Flyers, Oilers, Stars and Sharks are looking for help along the blueline.
- Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune: The sagging Canadian dollar will play a big roll in next year’s salary cap. The Blackhawks currently have $66 million tied up in 15 players next year, and they’ll have to make some moves if it doesn’t go up much from the $69 million for this season.
“Obviously, if the cap doesn’t go up and we keep the exact same team, no, that wouldn’t work,” Bowman said. “You get into all of these hypotheticals, ‘Well, if you keep this guy, that means you can’t keep that guy.’
“I’m not sure that’s a productive endeavor. We’ve always been able to figure it out in the past, and we’ve had a pretty good run of stability. We’re looking to try to do that as much as possible.”
Names from their core that they might have to move include: Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook or Bryan Bickell.
“The one thing that trumps everything is you need great players on your team, and great players make a lot of money,” Bowman said. “I would much rather be in the position where you’ve got them and you’re trying to make your cap work than to not have them, and then you’re trying to figure things out and trying to say, ‘How do we get good players?’