I perused my Google email alerts a couple minutes ago, and I found an interesting take on exactly when NHL fans might be able to expect some trades to happen. The answer, from Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland (as told to the Edmonton Sun’s Terry Jones), is “soon”:
“We had some pretty complete [staffing] meetings on Zoom about 10 days ago. Now it’s up to me to work the phones,” said Holland, who actually resides in a condo a few floors above the ones currently being occupied by the Stars and Lightning in the J.W. Marriott.
“I would say to you that it’s going to get very active in very, very short order here,” the Oilers general manager said in a one-on-one interview with your correspondent as he anticipated the walk from his condo in the J.W. Marriott to his office in Rogers Place no longer requiring a detour around the bubble, since the Oilers’ departure from the playoffs four games into the play-in qualifying series.
“I’ve been on the phone almost constantly with other general managers in the past several days. I think there going to be a lot of movement next week. Right now, everybody is working the phones and trying to find fits. If philosophically there look to be some possible fits between your team and somebody else’s team, you start to dive a little bit deeper.
“I would anticipate most of the trades happen next week leading up to the draft.”
When I asked the Oilers GM just how active he thought he could be with his salary cap complications, there was a bit of a pause.
“Not very,” he finally said. “We’re probably like at least half the teams in the league, and maybe more.”
Continued; as Yzerman is so averse to speaking with the media, one must take one’s estimations of the marketplace from where you can get ’em.
