from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

One player whose name I would have never predicted to be even possibly in the mix before the season is that of New York Rangers captain Ryan Callahan.

But he’s a pending UFA July 1 and so far contract talks have not gone well at all, a source told ESPN.com Tuesday.

All of which led to some rumblings that the Rangers are exploring the trade market in case talks don’t produce a contract extension before the March 5 trade deadline. My colleague Darren Dreger also reported on Callahan’s trade possibility during our Insider Trading segment Tuesday evening on TSN in Canada.

You can imagine the reaction when Rangers GM Glen Sather called some teams over the past week to inform them that Callahan might be available.

"That’s a pretty big name," one Western Conference source said.

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