With the NHL’s trade deadline closing in, it’s the time of year when rumors heat up and general managers work the phones even harder to fulfill their wish list. Atlanta’s Rick Dudley wants to add scoring. Boston’s Peter Chiarelli would like to add a defenseman.
The Flyers seem to be in on everything. Columbus has been trying to make a deal as long as anybody, except maybe the Kings and GM Dean Lombardi.
Anze Kopitar's Kings are one of many teams looking to make moves that improve their rosters. But too much trade talk can be dangerous, Craig Custance says. All the talk, the rumors and speculation can become a dangerous thing for teams in the middle of it.
Lombardi, for instance, could dramatically increase the chances of the Kings making a long playoff run by adding a scoring winger, and nobody would benefit more than center Anze Kopitar.
But Kopitar said he and his teammates won’t get caught waiting for outside help to walk through the dressing room door.
“We said in the locker room, it’s the guys who are in here who are going to do it,” Kopitar told Sporting News. “Even if a guy comes, one guy is not going to turn the thing around. We’re going to wait and see, if something happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it’s not a secret. We’re definitely not sitting here waiting for that.”
Howson has been looking for a move to spark his team, as the Jackets fall dangerously close to falling out of the playoff hunt. Coach Scott Arniel recently said he hasn’t seen signs of the trade rumors seeping into the room.
“I think guys have always heard rumors,” Arniel said. “Those things, as we all know, are out of control as a player. You just have to do your job.”
Soon, if they haven’t already, general managers will have the talk with their players who have no-trade clauses to see if they’re willing to waive them. Last year, Mike Modano went through it when Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk let him know he was getting calls from the Capitals, Flyers and Bruins about Modano’s availability.
He asked Modano if a trade was an idea he needed to entertain.
“It’s an uncomfortable situation. You know when you go in the game and you start playing, you say ‘Hey, this is one of those things that can happen in your career,’ ” Modano told Sporting News. “There’s a real kind of feeling out process. It’s tough.”
The negotiating window between the NHL and Versus regarding a new television deal closed at the end of January, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the window to negotiate a deal with NBC would begin “slightly afterwards.”
It’s an interesting time considering the merger between Comcast and NBC. As much talk as there is about getting hockey back on ESPN, NHL COO John Collins sounded interested in the potential of the media giant created by NBC and Comcast.
“It’s probably the most wired, potentially the most important media company in the United States,” Collins told Sporting News.
He said the league got a taste of the kind of cross promotion NBC can do with Versus during All-Star weekend. It was the most-watched NHL All-Star game in the history of the sports network, peaking at nearly two million viewers. The Skills competition was the most watched on cable since 2003, signs that cross promotion on Comcast and NBC entities paid off.
“There’s a lot of great assets there they can bring to bear and they brought them to bear for the first time ever in the newly merged company for the All-Star game,” Collins said. “They can cross promote across all the different channels and websites. I think it’ll be really interesting to see how combining those assets can really drive sports in general and the NHL in particular.”
Ilya Kovalchuk takes no satisfaction in the recent losing in Atlanta. He told Sporting News that he keeps in touch with former teammates Nik Antropov, Eric Boulton and Chris Thorburn and would love to see his former team make the playoffs without him. “I’d be happy for sure,” he said. “That franchise did a lot of good things for me. I only can say good things about it. I wish them the best all the way.”… The Lightning have continued to improve under Guy Boucher and it’s no fluke. One NHL player who recently lost to the Lightning said Tampa’s system isn’t easy to crack. “It’s driving people crazy,” he told us. “If you (mess) around in the neutral zone, they’re picking it off and going the other way… You need speed and skill guys who can carry it through. There’s a way to get through it but you don’t have four lines that can do it.”
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