from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

- The Arizona Coyotes can put up the For Sale sign any time.

Afterall, the holiday season freeze is set for Dec. 19 at midnight and it might be in GM John Chayka’s best interests to see if he can offer up a few early Boxing Day bargains like Martin Hanzal, Radim Vrbata, Ryan White and defenceman Michael Stone before all the talk comes to a halt.

All are unrestricted free agents on July 1 and already they’re being floated in the NHL’s marketplace because the Coyotes went into Saturday night’s visit by the Nashville Predators with a lousy 8-13-5 record and only 21 points in 26 games....

- With the Tampa Bay Lightning sitting five points out of a playoff spot heading into the weekend, the whispers have started about the future of head coach Jon Cooper. That would be a surprising change but stranger things have happened and the Bolts went to the Eastern Final last season.

- The Panthers have imploded since Tom Rowe went behind the bench after coach Gerard Gallant was fired two weeks ago. Florida is one of these teams that relies heavily on analytics when making decisions and the Coyotes are the same. “There’s a place for the numbers, but they don’t tell the whole story. You have to look at the whole picture,” said a league executive on Saturday.

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