Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings were looking for a forward yesterday, but they couldn’t find a fit. Prices were high.
“Some teams are bigger,” Holland said. “They don’t have our skill. Let’s play. I don’t know that there was a move today that we could have made that would have gotten us bigger. The bottom line is, if you are going on a long playoff run, the top half of your roster for the most part has got to be healthy. You can have the odd injury. Part of it is matchup, part of it is luck.”
Stephen Whyno via twitter: Capitals GM George McPhee when asked if Niklas Backstrom will return this year: “I don’t know. Hope so, but we don’t know.”
Michael Russo via twitter: Wild GM Chuck Fletcher said he hasn’t ruled out re-signing goalie Josh Harding.
John Shannon via twitter: The Panthers, Blues, and Coyotes, who are all in the hunt, weren’t able to make moves yesterday due to financial reasons.
Chip Alexander via twitter: Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford said there wasn’t any offers for either Bryan Allen or Jaroslav Spacek. Teams called to see what it would take, but no offers.
Dan Rosen of NHL.com: 5 winners from yesterday: Predators, Canucks, Sabres, Bruins and Lightning.
Brian Hedger via twitter: Hedger thinks that Blackhawks Jonathan Toews’ injury is a concussion.
Craig Custance of ESPN: Custance looks at 5 moves that didn’t yesterday that will be getting interest in the offseason: Rick Nash, Cory Schneider, Ryan Suter, Alexander Semin and the Ducks (things may change in the summer for the Ducks. GM Murray is giving this group a chance to get back in it.)
Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star: Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke is thinking about having his own personal trade deadline date, to make it easier on his players.
“It’s to the point where I’m debating doing the same thing I do at Christmas, starting our own trade freeze 10 days before, that’s how distracting it is,” said Burke. “Clarke MacArthur has been traded 10 times. (Mikhail) Grabovski’s been traded 12 times. (Nikolai) Kulemin has been traded. Luke Schenn has been traded 50 times. I think it’s remarkable the players keep their focus.”
“I think the trade deadline is hard on players, but I think it’s murder on players in Toronto,” said Burke. “We’re just going to do this 10 days earlier so our players can relax. I don’t know if that’s the right answer because I don’t want to tie my hands if there’s some (trade) we can do. This is crazy here.”
Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren:
“There wasn’t anything that was pitched to us that . . . would have made us as good a team as what’s on the board right now,” general manager Paul Holmgren said in a conference call from the team’s training facility in Voorhees. “We just felt more comfortable with our team the way it is, and quite frankly, since we’ve added the two defensemen, we’ve all felt that way.”
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Blues were not able to make any “non-lateral moves” before the deadline yesterday due to their ownership situation. Blues GM Doug Armstrong was only allowed to make dollar-for-dollar moves because their budget is restricted until the sale of the team is complete.
“We were trying to see what type of depth we could add to our group and there wasn’t a proper fit there,” Armstrong said. “I went in not expecting a lot of transactions, and at the end of the day, it didn’t seem like we were involved in much.”
Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News: The Red Wings called up highly touted Brendan Smith. Nicklas Lidstrom is questionable tonight with a sore ankle, and Kyle Quincey is out with a sore groin issue. Johan Franzen practiced on the 3rd line yesterday, but it’s not known if he’ll remain there for tonight.