The Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch delivers his usual boatload of trade rumors only two weeks removed from the trade deadline, but a point that he makes about the financial environment in which the Leddys, Boychuks, Stewarts, Fransons, Petrys, Greens, Vermettes et. al. may or may not be moved or signed to contract extensions is far more important than any of his scoops:

As the March 2 NHL trade deadline approaches, general manager’s have their thinking caps on.

With nobody sure where the salary cap is going to land next year — maybe somewhere in the $71 to $72-million range — three league executives told QMI Agency that teams are reticent to take on players with term.

The tumbling Canadian dollar has made the business of doing business in the NHL even more difficult because a large percentage of revenues come from north of the border.

“Nobody is sure where it’s going to go and that means you don’t want to get involved in long-term deals,” a league executive said Friday. “That could change the face of the deadline.”

What it means is the UFA’s will be more attractive.

Garrioch continues, discussing the aforementioned players...