from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- Check out Colorado’s cap situation. By my count, the Avalanche will have more than $25 million of space for next season with 17 players already signed. There are only three commitments past 2019-20 — Erik Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon.

- In one move, two of the biggest trade possibilities were removed from the NHL chessboard. As one exec was saying Monday, “What happens if Vegas stays in the race and the owner decides he wants to make the playoffs?”

Something always shakes loose, but it means there’s nothing obvious right now for the likes of Columbus (which may have been in on both players) and Pittsburgh (hovering around Duchene). I still think Edmonton may be the next team to try something, but not as earth shattering as we just saw.

- After a two-game experiment, Detroit moved away from an Andreas Athanasiou–Dylan Larkin–Anthony Mantha line. Too bad, I enjoyed watching it. Mantha pointed out that while they hadn’t played much as a trio, the three of them had experience together in pairs. Larkin said he and Athanasiou didn’t worry about speeding into the same areas. “I’m the centre,” he responded, “so (Andreas) is usually up the ice ahead of me when we break out.”

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