Defencemen Trade Market:
-Canucks defence is too top heavy
-thinks the Canucks miss someone like Ian Cole
-is skeptical that any impact defencemen will become available this season
-one GM told him that all the guys their team is interested in is signed long term at price points they wouldn't be interested in paying
-Flames might not be in the market to trade Andersson after this start
-have enough of a sample size on Erik Brannstrom to suggest it's unlikely he's a long-term option
-Sharks can't retain money and Savard, for example, has reliability issues with his health
-going to be difficult to acquire impact players this season
Sabres:
-not so much the mix of players with the Sabres but the coaching
-Devils were sloppy last season
-surprised Adams hired Ruff without interviewing anyone else
Predators:
-more surprising than the lack of scoring is their poor defensive game
-hard to stay patient when you spent 100 million dollars in the off-season
Blackhawks:
-thinks this season will be a bit of a highwater mark for points until around 2028 when the rest of their draftees are ready
Garland:
-when the Coyotes weren't sure if they were going to extend him, one team told Seravalli that they weren't interested in acquiring Garland because "he's going to get 'Dwarf-Tossed'"
-Tocchet believes in Garland
-when the Canucks were looking at trading Garland, they were also looking at offloading some other contracts and thought he may have made sense as one of the contracts to trade
-his play matches with his cap hit
Imagine having seen Alvin work these past few years, and then doubting he'll be able to make a deal
Making statements on how difficult it will be to acquire impact players when we're 5 games into the season is crazy.
Last season we had Tanner Pearson, Anthony Beauvillier, Poolman, Mikhayev, and Kuzmenko all on the books to start the year, and yet they still found ways to make moves. Obviously the latter two we didn't know would underperform to the extent they did, but the first 3 significantly hampered their flexibility, yet they found a way to make more deals than anyone else last season.
When the time is right, Alvin will make his move. Brannstrom right now is the Friedman stop gap from last year, but I'm fairly certain management knows they'll need more on the blueline as we get closer to the deadline.