from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Players I’d be inquiring about if I were the Leafs: Boone Jenner and Nick Foligno in Columbus; Sam Bennett in Calgary; Anaheim’s Rickard Rackell. The Leafs would need to move some money around for any of those deals but they appear quite willing to do that.

- How bad are the Buffalo Sabres? Frankly, as bad as any non-expansion team I’ve ever seen. They’ve gone 17 games without a win and in that time they’ve been outscored 70-25 and shut out five times. The Sabres need a Brendan Shanahan type to go in and change the culture of the organization, and then begin to build over again … What Buffalo shouldn’t do: Trade Rasmus Dahlin. Trading young defencemen of talent can backfire. See Chris Pronger and Seth Jones, both traded at 21; Dougie Hamilton traded at 22. Dahlin turns 21 next month.

- This is Wild: Minnesota’s Bill Guerin and Dean Evason would be my picks for GM and coach of the year in the NHL.

- f the NHL is getting into the gambling business, which it is, the league’s coaches should be instructed to announce starting goaltenders day before the game, the way starting pitchers are announced in baseball. You can’t be hypocritical by welcoming gambling and cutting off information from said gamblers

more