NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman a week ago on teams retaining players for trade-related reasons, as it seems to be happening more frequently and further from the deadline.
** Transcript from NHL Rumors.com
“I’m with you, Jackie. I don’t care as long as the exchange is done the next day or the next day. When it starts to go as long as this (which was a week ago when the interview happened), I don’t think I’m going to like it. I think a lot of people agree with me.
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Now, the one thing that’s key in this situation is that I think (Jakob) Chychrun is okay with it. (Vladislav) Gavrikov, we’ll see how long this lasts. I heard that one has been potentially moving closer (in the past week).
Chychrun, he understands, I think. Look, he has a history of injuries. Something small may have happened (two) weeks ago. This was something to wrap it up a bit more. The commercial value of it will never be higher. He has had a phenomenal year. He has done everything he has to do. They want to move him and he wants to be traded.
I understand. I don’t think the players association is making a problem here. But I don’t think coaches and teams are comfortable with that. I give a lot of credit to Arizona. They play very hard … but they’re playing a lot of teams right on the playoff line or looking for seeding or home-field advantage.
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I don’t think people like this and I’ll be curious to see the next time the commissioner speaks if he has a problem with that. In the past he has said no, as long as the trade was imminent. We’ll see where this goes.”
