It may not seem like it because players are flying off the shelves, but there are far more buyers than sellers heading into Monday's 2 p.m. trade deadline. That just makes for a smaller, more expensive market.
That's why many teams may stand largely pat in terms of real impact moves. Maybe you add a depth forward here or sixth defenseman there, but in terms of wow factor, most teams will barely make a ripple.
That's not to say players won't move. They certainly will, maybe even one big one in Dallas' Brad Richards. But you talk to GMs, the bar was set when Mike Fisher went to Nashville for a first-round pick. The prices since have been incredibly inflated for the most marginal of players.
It'll take a significant amount of assets to pick up Richards as a free-agent rental (unless he's re-signed by his new home), but the Stars are clearly entertaining it because GM Joe Nieuwendyk has been more talkative than an 8-year-old on an airplane.
Nieuwendyk, after trading James Neal and Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski, has made sure to get the word out to teams other than just the Rangers that Richards can be had.
But the way teams jumped in front of the deadline in the days leading up to it, the talking heads at TSN and Sportsnet who devote live, all-day coverage starting at 7 a.m. CT may have to fill a lot of dead air Monday.
Maybe Pierre McGuire can do a stand-up act or Bob McKenzie can play the banjo to provide some entertainment.
One buyer may be the Los Angeles Kings. We've all been waiting for GM Dean Lombardi to lure that big fish even well before he battled New Jersey for Ilya Kovalchuk last summer. Could he make that big impact move now?
