from Elliotte Friedman of CBC,

So far this season we’ve seen a few GMs - Bryan Murray, Brian Burke and Chuck Fletcher among them - warn their players about being shipped out if they don’t shape up.

Here’s the question: Does this work anymore?

It differs from player to player, but many of them gossip as much as fans and media do and if they don’t, their agents fill them in. They know how hard it is to make a deal.

The levelling off of the salary cap has created a near-paralysis around the league. Since the puck dropped on this season, there have been two trades (Ian White/Brett Sutter for Anton Babchuk/Tom Kostopoulos and Scott Hannan for Tomas Fleischmann) that involved active NHL players for other active NHL players.

Few teams are in a position to add salary, and fewer are interested.

continued plus 30 thoughts…