from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

The week-long NHL holiday roster freeze goes into effect next Thursday, which means those GMs who want to deliver help before Christmas had better get a move.

"There's no question there's a lot of teams talking and many would like to do something," said a league executive Friday. "The problem is nobody seems to want to make a deal.

"The problem with the holiday roster freeze is its false deadline."

Those GMs who want to be the most active at this juncture are the Sabres, Coyotes, Hurricanes and Flyers, but those GMs are hitting roadblocks when it comes to finding a dance partner.

continue for some rumor talk and opinions...