from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- The options for Dubas right now: Compromise and sign Mitch Marner immediately, find a way to keep both Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson, bring back Jake Gardiner as a free agent, take advantage of whatever it is you get for Nikita Zaitsev, sign a backup goalie and protect your assets. Dubas needs to do some of that or all of that and at least now he has some financial flexibility to play with. To trade Marleau, he needed to be bold, to swallow a little more than he wanted to swallow and to protect the main strength of his roster.

- Mark Giordano didn’t win just the Norris Trophy. He romped, getting 165 first-place votes. John Carlson had three first-place votes, Brett Burns two and Victor Hedman one.

- You can’t make this stuff up: Somebody out of Buffalo (not the venerable Mike Harrington) voted Jake Muzzin third on their Norris Trophy ballot. Honest.

a few more hockey notes...