from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- The Blues are in an interesting spot. A contender going through some transition. The new setup in goal is well-documented. The defence is reasonably set. What’s getting less attention are the changes up front. Jaden Schwarz is establishing himself as a top scorer. Vladimir Tarasenko is growing from a 15-minute player to a 17-minute player. Once he gets healthy, Paul Stastny will be a major piece. Depending on how this evolves, will Doug Armstrong quietly gauge the market on some of his incumbent forwards?

- Nail Yakupov scored his second of the season in that win. There’ve been a lot of rumours about his future, but I confess I haven’t heard anything substantial. After a week of looking into it, here’s my best guess: he’s not untouchable, but the Oilers asked him to show more commitment in the off-season and on the ice. So far, he has delivered. It sounds like Edmonton wants to reward that. Dallas Eakins is trusting him in late-game one-goal leads, something that never would have happened a year ago.

- Thought Boston and/or Philadelphia, both short defencemen, might look at Buffalo’s Andrej Meszaros. He’s on a one-year deal and has played in both cities, but it doesn’t sound as if either looked at it. He’s at $4.125 million, which may explain the problem for a pair of cap-tight clubs.

- Edmonton’s Jeff Petry’s comes a little more than $1M lower, and the Flyers can’t do that right now for cap reasons, even though they like him. Between the Flyers, Red Wings, possibly the Ducks and anyone else I’m missing, there seems to be a nice little market for him.

much more plus a look at Randy Carlyle...