from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Newly-hired Chicago GM Kyle Davidson made it clear the Blackhawks are in a full rebuild.

“There’s some things we need to fix that are going to take time,” he said while being introduced on Tuesday. But he did offer up one key hint: Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews “are extremely important pieces to the organizations. They’re definitely going to be brought into the loop. There won’t be any surprises on their end on what we plan on doing with the organization.”...

- One GM described the rental defence market as “soft,” and a couple of his compatriots concurred. A major reason is that there’s a lot of them, with multiple options from either side. We’ve mentioned before that the early ask was what Columbus got last season for David Savard (a first and a third), but buyers feel they can squeeze the sellers. And I think some will wait to see what happens with Hampus Lindholm.

- I can see John Klingberg as a Kraken. Maybe not now, but in the summer. He fits what they need.

more on the first topic plus other hockey Thoughts....