from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Now that the market’s loosening up a little, a few smaller things to keep an eye on: Colorado is at the maximum 50 contracts. No one likes that. Ever. No doubt they will try to drop one or two.

Columbus has nine defencemen. No one likes that, either. Maybe they leave one in Brooklyn after their game Tuesday for the ailing Islanders.

Buffalo has more of an AHL problem, with extra veterans that have to sit. The Sabres would like to ease that, and it’s possible one of their depth players at the NHL level is part of it.

- Can’t imagine the cap makes it possible, but I wonder if Chicago would ever try to find a way to bring back Brandon Saad. They do miss him.

- So, why does Detroit GM Ken Holland say the Red Wings are stuck with a $66M cap?

I assumed it was to hedge against bonuses that could be attained by Dylan Larkin or Brad Richards, but that is incorrect. It has everything to do with when Pavel Datsyuk was put on long-term injury relief.

CBA nerds can check Article 50.10 (d) of the document, and look for illustration number 4. The best way to utilize LTIR before the season begins is loaning bodies to the AHL so you get below the cap prior to invoking the relief. Detroit couldn’t do it.

There were guys eligible for waivers they didn’t want to risk losing. Then you try to stack the roster with as much salary as you can to utilize all of the injured player’s money. (For Datsyuk, that’s $7.5M.) Therefore, Detroit’s trying to get to the cap, plus Datsyuk’s value, so we’re talking $79M.

Their extra players didn’t make that much, and there was no sensible add. Since neither approach worked, the Red Wings lose out on what they missed by. That’s approximately $4.5M. Suffice it to say there’s a dartboard of whoever came up with this rule in Joe Louis Arena.

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