from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Toronto GM Kyle Dubas has had this to say to other teams regarding his team’s approach at the deadline: “Our players will decide what we do.” Their fortunes will determine whether or not the Maple Leafs pursue a right-handed defender or test the market on their UFAs-to-be. They played very well in a 5-2 win over Nashville in their first game back from the all-star break, with a tough game in Dallas coming up on Wednesday. They have looked into Minnesota’s Mathew Dumba, who fits with Toronto’s modus operandi — he has three years remaining on his contract. As one exec said, “They are investigating every good defenceman on the market.”

- Every year, Brian Burke tells me the trade deadline is going to be a dud, and every year I tell him something big will happen that we don’t see coming. This is his best chance to be right. I don’t sense much excitement with what we know is available on the rental market. There could be more interest in the price points of players who wouldn’t jump to the top of most of our lists. One example is Dylan DeMelo. His future is as much in Ottawa’s hands as his own, but DeMelo’s solid 2019–20 has not gone unnoticed.

- One of the things I’m really looking forward to getting with puck and player tracking is more detailed analysis of passing. Quinn Hughes is absolutely incredible at it, and he talked at length about setting up both Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson for one-timers on the power play.

“Elias likes a certain spin, and I’ve been working on getting it right,” he said.

Pettersson deadpanned that “(Hughes) still hasn’t figured it out.”

What does he want?

“I like it flat along the ice, outside the foot.”

-- A few of the Eastern Conference players said they can see confidence growing in Florida’s Sergey Bobrovsky.

“He went from an airtight defensive team to one that isn’t,” an all-star said. “That takes time.”

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