Tick tock...
The NHL's holiday trade freeze goes into effect at midnight ET tonight—that's 9 p.m. our time—and lasts until midnight on December 27th.
There's still time for teams to make a deal, but all is quiet so far around the league.
The reliable Elliotte Friedman weighs in today with a pretty thorough overview of the landscape in his
30 Thoughts.
While there have been plenty of rumours swirling about former colleagues Jim Benning and Boston GM Peter Chiarelli having trade talks, Friedman says that Chiarelli's main focus when looking to deal is to free up cap space. It's unlikely that he'd be interested in the kind of contracts that come with an Alex Burrows or even a Higgins or Hansen when he deals Torey Krug, Dougie Hamilton or Reilly Smith—who Friedman says Chiarelli "must deal with...in the summer."
Elliotte does mention Zack Kassian as a possible fit for Boston, but admits that this idea is losing steam:
Kassian currently is injured, but I can see the Bruins taking a shot when he returns. Jim Benning knows Boston’s prospects, it probably doesn’t cost Chiarelli a ton and Kassian has the edge Boston is looking for, although he hasn’t shown enough of it yet.
Late note: Boston may have cooled on this one.
Jim Benning appeared on Scott Rintoul's show on TSN1040 on Thursday night. OmarCanuck over at VanCityBuzz
transcribed the relevant comments. Here are a couple of excerpts that give us more of an insight into Benning's processes and his current mindset:
I talk to all the managers in the league weekly and biweekly just to find out what’s going on around the league, but we’re not close on any sort of deals around here. I’m happy with our group so we’re not talking trades with any of the teams.
I’m always going to have an open mind. If there’s something out there that I think makes sense that makes us a better team now and in the future that we can do, I’ll definitely do it, but there’s nothing like that going around right now.
Omar is convinced that even if Jim had something serious going on, he wouldn't tell us.
I'll take him a little more at his word. I think if something was happening, he'd go silent or duck the issue rather than issuing a flat denial.
That being said, anything can happen. If the tradewinds start to blow hard later today, chain reactions can sometimes trigger interesting events.
One thing's for sure: Tom Sestito would like to be moved if he doesn't see some game action soon. Jim Jamieson
has that story in
The Province.
Prior to Wednesday's game against Dallas, here's how Willie Desjardins said he wants to see Sestito play:
I just think the way the game is played today it’s all about the pace. It’s hard to play with that kind of pace when you’re a big body like he is. You look at how fast New York was. Dallas is fast. There’s teams that skate so hard that if you can’t carry that pace, you’re not effective. That’s the pace Tom has to carry. Can he carry it? We’ll have to see.
But here's Willie's olive branch to the big guy:
You still like that size. If you have that size and you can get it to move, it comes in handy in the heavy games against the Anaheims and the L.A.’s. You just have to make sure it gets moving the way you want.
For his part, Sestito sounds frustrated. "I haven’t been given a fair shake here yet," he told Jamieson.
My one game that I played, in Edmonton, I thought I played really well. I played physical. I got an assist. I don’t even look at Corsi. I think it’s a bunch of BS, but we were the best Corsi on the ice that night. I don’t know what else I can show from that perspective. It’s up to him. Maybe I’m not in his plans. I don’t really know. I don’t talk to him about it. I just go about my work.
Sestito didn't shy away from the idea that he might need to find a new home. "It’s a pretty simple game I play, and if they’re not a fan of it, I’ve got to play somewhere else, I guess."
After "the incident" last year, you'd think that Sestito's best chance to get into an upcoming game might be against Calgary on Saturday, but don't hold your breath. The formerly "truculent" Flames have put up the fourth-lowest penalty totals in the league this year, averaging just 8.5 minutes a game (Vancouver ranks 17th at 10.2 minutes a game).
A lot of the Flames' early success has been built around the dynamic play of their young forwards, so Tommy could find himself watching from the press box once again.
No news trickling out yet from today's practice. I'll update any new line and roster combinations when I tee up Saturday's game in tomorrow's blog.
Let's leave it here for today—short and sweet:
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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