Start here today...

On Emelin...

With the injury news regarding Sekera not looking good at all, the Oilers are now very much in the market for a solid experienced defender...and there are surprisingly quite a few available at Sekera's level.

...I can't honestly remember an off-season with this many d-men who can really help a team in need just sitting there......

Luca Sbisa, Tobias Enstrom, Kevin Bieksa, Johnny Oduya and Alexei Emelin are ALL looking for work...5 years ago, thats a pretty solid NHL D-corps unto themselves....so right now there is just a ton of experience that any team could gain from by adding one of these guys to be a 5 or 6...

The Oilers appear to be focused mostly on Emelin. He was very good last year for the Predators..

It had appeared Emeiin was headed to the KHL as late as just a week ago but suddenly talks with AK Bars Kazan ended a few days ago and the Kazan signed another D-man instead...All this corresponded with the Sekera news...and there is a lot of smoke here.

On Pacioretty....

The Canadiens and management are very good at spin and gamesmanship. That much you need to be aware of..for sure..

So currently they are finding it very hard to trade their captain...and now they are starting to float a lot of stuff out there about how excited the two sides are to see Max return this season...

I know Pacioretty does love the fans of Montreal and it is not like it sucks to pull that sweater on every night...however, the change is needed and has been needed for about 8 months....the problem is the limited amount of places Max will sign long-term is making it almost impossible to get anything close to fair value in return...

And the Habs aren't yet willing to do what Carolina did with Skinner and cut their losses in order to just move away from the situation.

So..... why not walk out of the car showroom saying you are happy with your current car and see if the salesman follows you out??

That is essentially where we are right now... The Habs are telling the teams they have been talking to that everyone is happy with Max playing this year in Montreal...that they don't HAVE to make a move...

True? not really.

I would still put the chances of Max returning this year around 30%...

What say you???

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