from Elliotte Friedman of CBC,

- New York Islanders GM Garth Snow said he wants to keep netminder Evgeni Nabokov and defencemen Mark Streit and Lubomir Visnovsky (Newsday's Arthur Staple reported that preliminary talks are underway with Streit). That's consistent with what the Islanders are telling other teams, at least until we see if they have staying power into April.

- Another exec on Snow: "Some guys are masters of the salary cap. He is master of the salary floor." Great line -- and not intended as an insult.

- Flyers GM Paul Holmgren on goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov's exit interview from last season: "He came in and said, 'I know I f----d up, I know I got to get better. Don't worry, I will." First impressions are hard to change and that one will last awhile in Philly. On a team decimated by injuries, he is taking his job more seriously.

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