from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

The talk is finally starting to heat up leading into the Feb. 26 trade deadline, but National Hockey League general managers are still at the tire-kicking stage.

The usual problem exists: Buyers far outnumber sellers....

- There’s talk the New York Islanders are getting more and more nervous about the future of captain John Tavares, who has a cap hit of $5.5 million in the final year of his contract. There is talk Tavares’ camp isn’t keen on talking about a deal during the season, which doesn’t help if the Isles are listening to trade offers....

- There’s talk the New York Islanders are getting more and more nervous about the future of captain John Tavares, who has a cap hit of $5.5 million in the final year of his contract. There is talk Tavares’ camp isn’t keen on talking about a deal during the season, which doesn’t help if the Isles are listening to trade offers....

- What’s this about the asking price for Montreal Canadiens winger Max Pacioretty being high? Word from league executives is that Habs’ general manager Marc Bergevin wants to hit a home run if he’s going to deal the club’s captain. What exactly is that? The belief is that the Habs want a top forward and a No. 1 pick for Pacioretty, who has one year left with a cap hit of $4.5 million....

a bit more on each of the above plus more talk...