NHL Trade Rumors: Montreal Canadiens and Teams on the Fence

Less than two weeks stand between now and the NHL trade deadline, and there are still scores of GMs around the league who have yet to decide whether their teams are buyers, sellers or non-factors on the market this month.

So while the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings are busy buying—and the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Carolina Hurricanes are preoccupied with shedding salary—these three teams will still be making up their minds as to whether or not they should get involved at all.

Montreal Canadiens

Seven points (and three teams) stand between Montreal and the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, and yet the Canadiens remain stuck in the middle. The Habs could go ahead and dump Travis Moen and Hal Gill, among others, for draft picks and prospects or, just as easily jump into the Ales Hemsky sweepstakes.

As Steven Hindle suggests, the next few games will decide which way, and to what degree, the Habs turn ahead of the deadline.

Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres spent a ton of cash in the offseason in anticipation of a run at the Stanley Cup after back-to-back trips to the postseason...and promptly fell flat on their faces.

Well, not completely flat, though one point out of the basement in the competitive Eastern Conference isn't exactly what Buffalo'd hoped for coming into the campaign.

Still, Buffalo remains just eight points shy of the playoffs, though with so many tradable pieces (Jochen Hecht, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, etc.), GM Darcy Regier may yet find it prudent to cash in his team's chips and give it the ol' hockey try next season.  

Phoenix Coyotes

It's amazing how much a bad ownership situation can ruin a promising season for any team in any sport.

Take the Coyotes as a prime example. They're currently sitting eighth in the Western Conference thanks to a five-game winning streak and have a nice hunk of cap space to burn on some help.

Except, the team doesn't have an owner, and commissioner Gary Bettman is reluctant to sell it to anyone who'd move it anywhere else, like, say, any place that has colder weather and more naturally puck-minded sporting mass than Phoenix, Arizona.

Don't be surprised, then, if you hear Shane Doan's name bandied about even more as the deadline approaches, even if the Yotes continue to play well and even though GM Don Maloney has made it clear that he doesn't want to deal Doan.

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