from Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun,

Seven things we learned from the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, which ended this weekend.

LET’S MAKE A DEAL

With NHL general managers having spent almost as much time talking trade with each other as they did interviewing draft prospects, many of them predict the next four weeks could be as frenzied as we’ve ever seen in the modern day NHL in terms of transactions. The ingredients creating this perfect storm for wheeling and dealing:

• A salary cap that is expected to increase by no more than $2 million-$3 million for 2017-18, with the possibility still looming that it might just remain flat.
• A significant number of teams looking to move bloated contracts, especially with the aforementioned cap situation.
• The most liberal transaction rules that have ever been associated with an expansion draft.
• The jockeying by teams to have the incoming Vegas Golden Knights avoid taking certain players who don’t appear on a protected list.
• An entry draft that could be as wide open as we’ve seen since 2010, with very little consensus among the experts after the first few picks.
• The opening of free agency on July 1.

'D' DEFICIENCY

Behind closed doors, GMs are frustrated at the depletion of potential blueline help on the trade market due in part to the long-term shoulder labrum injuries of Ducks’ defencemen Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen, who both will be out a minimum five months. The Ducks, Nashville Predators and, to a lesser extent, Minnesota Wild were considered to be teams that had depth on the back end that could be moved, with the Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs among those who actively want to address the d-corps. Now, because of Anaheim’s banged-up blueline, the Ducks are not expected to be active on that front, evaporating the league-wide trade fodder at that position.

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