While the Sabres were expected to be active at the trade deadline earlier this month, they wound up being quiet. In his latest Insider Trading column, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports that teams weren’t interested in pending UFA defenseman Dmitry Kulikov as a result of the various injuries he has dealt with this season while there was limited interest in fellow UFA rearguard Cody Franson.
Winger Evander Kane was also a player that some thought could be moved but the scribe notes that interest in him was only mild before the deadline. He expects that GM Tim Murray will revisit those talks in the summer. Kane has one season left on his contract after this one with a cap hit of $5.25MM.
As always, the full article is worth a read (including plenty on the potential coaching carousel) but here are a couple of the other highlights:
- Despite their struggles this year, Avalanche GM Joe Sakic is likely to hold onto his title and will be tasked with completing the widely anticipated Matt Duchene deal in the offseason. Colorado is heading for what appears to be a significant rebuilding process so if Sakic is allowed to retain his role now, there’s a good chance he’ll be given a long leash to work with as it wouldn’t make sense for the team to have Sakic start the rebuild and then change course shortly thereafter.
- The wait continues for any concrete information regarding whether or not the NHL will stop their schedule to allow their players to play in the Olympics next season and there wasn’t any coming out of the GM meetings this past week. Garrioch suggests a couple of possibilities for the delay – it’s still a big issue for the players and the TV rights holders in the US (NBC – who also holds the Olympic rights) could very well be pushing the owners to allow them to go as well. There has been talk that the league may be willing to change its stance if they get the right concessions either from the players in the form of CBA elements or perhaps the International Olympic Committee in terms of access and content rights.
An out of the box thought on the Olympic issue but could NBC and Rogers Sportsnet provide said concessions to the NHL? Both broadcasting companies stand to have a lot of conflict if the NHL continues on during the Olympics since both air the Olympics(though Rogers shares with TSN and CBC in Canada) and would also have to abide by their NHL tv contracts. Plus, if they were to meet the NHL’s concessions, all parties really win. Players get to go, fans get to see the best of the best, NHL gets it’s money, the IOC doesn’t have to pay the NHL and the networks avoid conflict and get to air an actual best on best tournament.