Wild talking to the Buffalo Sabres about Drew Stafford

Update: Jake Dowell cleared waivers.

Biggest trade thus far was a blockbuster, with Lightning captain Martin St. Louis going to the Rangers (the lone team he requested to be traded to) for captain Ryan Callahan, a first round pick and a second round pick. Lots of conditions in the deal; Tampa gets another first if the Rangers go to the conference finals, Rangers get a pick back if Callahan re-signs.

As always, the trades will come rapid-fire eventually. The issue is the domino hasn't fallen on Marian Gaborik, Thomas Vanek, Matt Moulson, Mike Cammalleri and Ales Hemsky -- five scoring rental forwards. The second one goals, the other should follow quickly.

I created a false alarm this morning when I was told Gaborik to the Kings was done. I had to do a mea culpa even though trust me, the source was as good as it gets. The deal still seemed imminent for a bit and still could happen, but the Kings are now ticked with Columbus, doesn't want to get left at the altar and have moved on looking at some of the other rentals. The Jackets are still shopping Gaborik. Ottawa was one team involved but reportedly is after Hemsky too. So if they go Hemsky, maybe it still winds up L.A. with Gaborik, but it obviously wasn't the done deal I was told.

As for the Wild, quiet right now. They're in the holding pattern everybody else seems to be in. As always, once 2 p.m. creeps closer, the deals will rapidly flow throughout the NHL.

Good morning. After weeks of stories and working the phone and hiding behind flower pots in front of Chuck Fletcher's office, it's finally the trade deadline.

Starting tomorrow, I can mail in the rest of the season.

Here is a trade tracker you can pay attention to at work and school (I'm not condoning not working or studying) today.

As you know by now, the Wild acquired Ilya Bryzgalov from the Oilers yesterday to give the team goalie depth with Niklas Backstrom shut down and Josh Harding unlikely to return this season. The trade was indeed for a 2014 fourth-round pick (There seems to be some Twitter confusion because it sounds like a site or two has mistakenly put Edmonton's price paid for Viktor Fasth next to the Bryzgalov trade on their charts).

What happens today?

Fletcher was in on the Jaroslav Halak trade. He didn't want to give a prospect and/or a second-round pick, so he pulled the trigger on the easiest trade (fourth-round pick) and was able to save some cap space in the process.

That gives him the flexibility to make more moves today. As I reported in today's newspaper and on last night's blog, multiple sources tell me the Wild is very interested in Drew Stafford, who has been playing at a consistently high level for some time for the Sabres. There have been lots of conversations between Fletcher and Sabres GM Tim Murray lately and the big question is whether Murray is indeed willing to trade Stafford, 28, and what the price would be.

So it could cost a second-tier prospect, salaried player (Wild would need to trade some cash unless it just puts Backstrom or Harding on LTIR, which allows you to top the cap ceiling by their cap hit if you need the space) and/or a pick.

Stafford is very good friends with Zach Parise from their days at Shattuck and North Dakota, he's a former teammate of Jason Pominville. (By the way, even though I'm mentioning Stafford on here, I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm sure Fletcher has many balls in the air and this is just one I've heard about).

The question that I haven't connected all the dots on? If the Wild acquires Stafford, where's he fit? I'd think somebody would need to depart in that trade or another one.

I'd think you'd want him to be your second-line right wing.

If you figure, the lines currently are:

Heatley-Koivu-Coyle

Cooke-Brodziak-Niederreiter

Mitchell-Haula-Fontaine, ….

this could lend further credence to why I keep hearing from sources that Kyle Brodziak can be had today.

If you slid Stafford or acquired another top-6 right wing and traded Brodziak, you could slide Coyle back to the position coach Mike Yeo says he feels Coyle has grown "leaps and bounds" in this season – center.

I talked to Brodziak yesterday in a general sense (not about him personally, just so you know the context), and he said, "It's a tough part of the year. There's a lot of uncertainty around the locker room, but we're professionals, we've dealt with it before and tune it out best we can. We've done a really good job this year putting ourselves in here in a good position. Everyone in here feels really good about the group that we have. We just want to keep building so we can tap into the potential of this team."

Brodziak, the first player Fletcher ever traded for as the Wild GM in 2009, also has another year on his deal ($3 million salary, $2.833M cap hit).

Another player who could be dealt today is Torrey Mitchell, so if Mitchell got dealt and Brodziak stayed, you could shuffle your lines in other ways.

I mentioned yesterday that TVA Sports reporter Renaud Lavoie tweeted yesterday that sources told him that Torrey Mitchell asked to be traded. Mitchell and his agent Kent Hughes each denied the report in separate texts, but after those denials, I also had two sources confirm the Mitchell trade request.

Fletcher didn't respond to my inquiry, which makes you think that where there's smoke, there's fire.

So Mitchell came to Minnesota thinking he'd have a chance to be third-line right wing. After Parise and Bouchard were inserted, Mitchell fell down the depth chart. Since, the Wild has added youngsters like Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter. So Mitchell has been saddled on the fourth line pretty much since he has gotten here.

So if Mitchell wants out, that's why. The problem he may run into today though is with a very manageable $1.9 million salary next year and an appetizing age to rebuilding teams (29), he could very easily be included in a deal to say Buffalo. Let's just say the Wild can't get Stafford done and chooses a rental (Matt Moulson, Thomas Vanek), Mitchell again would be an easy throw-in.

So if Mitchell did ask out now (which I understand he denies), he may regret it because it could cost him a playoff berth. If it's true he wants to move on so he could play more, he may have been better off just riding this out the rest of the season and then asking out after the season. I would assume it would be simple to trade a fast, hard-working 29-year-old with one year left on his contract during the offseason. Now he could conceivably wind up in a losing situation today.

Another name potentially being floated is Dany Heatley, who has a limited no-trade clause. I've even heard his hometown of Calgary, although I'm not sure why a non-playoff team would need an expiring contract. But Fletcher and Flames acting GM Brian Burke did meet during the entire second intermission of Monday's Wild-Flames game.

It also wouldn't shock me if Fletcher tried to bring in another depth defenseman.

I'll be hosting a live online chart Thursday at 3 p.m. CT, incidentally.