After being widely expected to be buyers in advance of the trade deadline, a six-game losing streak may have the Blues changing course. Sportsnet’s John Shannon reports (Twitter link) that St. Louis has started to make some of their players available. In particular, forward Vladimir Sobotka is now believed to be available although the asking price is high. The 30-year-old has had a fairly quiet season offensively with 24 points (9-15-24) through 61 games and while he was a high-end faceoff specialist in his first NHL stint, he has primarily played on the wing since rejoining St. Louis late last season. Sobotka has two years remaining on his contract after this one with a $3.5MM cap hit and if there is a team that thinks he can return to his original position, he should be able to garner some interest.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- Although the Stars have the ability to take on roughly $4MM in a full-season cap hit (per CapFriendly), GM Jim Nill told Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News that they would like to only spend about $2.5MM of that in order to preserve some flexibility for any late-season recalls in case injuries strike. Heika suggests that Dallas is okay with their center situation despite the frequent injuries to Martin Hanzal but that Nill would like to add some scoring help up front.
- One team that is unlikely to be active on Monday is the Avalanche. GM Joe Sakic told Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that they intend to stick to their plan and stay the course. In particular, he noted that they will not be trading draft picks or prospects nor will they be looking to add any pending unrestricted free agents to their roster.
- The Jets had a pair of scouts watching the Blackhawks on Friday, notes Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe. The scribe suggests that Winnipeg is looking to add a top-nine forward and some depth on the back end and that Chicago’s Ryan Hartman and Jan Rutta could have been the players being watched. He also believes Blackhawks center Artem Anisimov could be on their radar after failing to land both Derick Brassard and Tomas Plekanec.