from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal,

Everybody around the league knows Hemsky is talented, although he only had 20 points in 38 games last yearin part because of a broken foot; the question is how many games he’ll play. He’s missed 108 the last four years. He doesn’t play on the periiphery; he goes into danger zones; trouble is he often gets wall-papered for his trouble and he gets hurt. Teams are leery about paying $5 million for a guy who might play 55 games.

The market for trades right now is very, very difficult, outside of Ryan and the odd one-for-one like Magnus Paajarvi for David Perron, with the St. Louis Blues looking to shave some payroll.. “It’s extremely soft. Most people like their teams right now. They’ve spent their money. Some are trying to shed guys payroll wise. Everybody has a different financial landscape. There’s lots of guys on the outside looking in (Ryan Whitney, Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray, all UFAs). It’s a reflection of more supply than demand. There’s little liquidity in the market, not very many buyers,” said MacTavish.

The Ottawa Senators would seem the most likely to reach out to MacTavish on Hemsky because they lost right-winger/captain,soul of the franchise Daniel Alfredsson to Detroit when free-agency opened. They also traded Swede Jakob Silfverberg to get Bobby Ryan from Anaheim and might move him to right side from his usual left. After Ryan it’s third-liner Chris Neil, Eric Condra and J. Pageau, and they do have more than $11 million in cap room. But, maybe Sens’ owner Eugene Melnyk wants to save money not spend more.

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