from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

- The Flyers, their most intriguing story line this season revolving around where they’ll trade Claude Giroux, on Thursday signed up for five more years of defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen for $25.5 million. Since entering the league with Buffalo as a 19-year-old in 2013-14, Ristolainen had a league-worst minus-173 entering the weekend. In that same stretch, Brad Marchand was a league-best plus-176.

- The March 21 trade deadline is shaping up as a dud. If that ends up being the case, look to the West, where only Colorado and Calgary looked like playoff locks headed into the weekend. Otherwise, upward of 10 other teams felt they were more buyers than sellers, albeit some of them quite deceived.

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