from the CP at Sportsnet,

Craig MacTavish isn’t taking too kindly to comments made by Nail Yakupov’s agent about his client’s role with the Edmonton Oilers.

A day after Igor Larionov told ESPN.com that he’d be open to a trade from the Oilers, MacTavish accused the reporter (Craig Custance) who wrote the story of "manufacturing it" and defended the team’s treatment of Yakupov.

"There’s nothing changed from our perspective on Yak," MacTavish said after the NHL general managers meeting in Toronto. "The only thing I will say is that adversity in my mind is something that helps spur development. Yak’s facing a little bit of adversity, but there aren’t too many players of that age that haven’t. That’s really all I have to say about it."

continued with more from MacTavish...