from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

- The Leafs are getting plenty of calls on forwards James Van Riemsdyk and Morgan Rielly, but neither of those guys are going anywhere. The talk is if the Leafs don't get up off the mat and back into the playoff race then the rebuild will begin in Hogtown. While many would like to see winger Phil Kessel and captain Dion Phaneuf moved, there may not be much action on the latter. "You're going to have a pretty tough time moving that contract unless you're willing to take back somebody else's problem," an executive said.

- Buffalo GM Tim Murray is sitting quietly and is still expected to be active before the deadline. The Sabres are being patient with forwards Chris Stewart, Drew Stafford and Torrey Mitchell. Teams remain interested in Stewart -- including the Flames and Bruins.

- Everybody is waiting to see what the Arizona (don't call me Phoenix) Coyotes decide to do at the deadline. They've got pieces they want to move: Centre Antoine Vermette, forward Martin Erat, along with defencemen Zbynek Michalek and, possibly, Keith Yandle, who has one year left on his contract. There's plenty of interest in Vermette so it's almost a certainly he will be moved. The real question is what will they do with captain Shane Doan? He has a "no-move" clause so if GM Don Maloney wanted to entertain the thought of moving the veteran, who has a year left on his contract, he would need permission. The thinking is Doan doesn't want to go anywhere and he'll stay in the desert. That could change next year when he's a few months away from UFA. The Coyotes don't control the deadline though. "There's this thinking that they have teams clamouring for all their players. That's just not the case," said another league executive.

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