Wednesday morning was the quiet before the rest of the NHL trade deadline storm, which got the talking heads to talking.
Two commentators on TSN's Tradecentre show -- echoing each other, really -- asserted that "the price for Thomas Vanek has dropped" quite a bit since, well since "what we expected a few months ago."
It's entirely unclear what that's supposed to mean and whether it's sourced in anything beyond inference: There are multiple scoring wingers available on the trade market, so supply is plentiful. Certainly the Islanders aren't going to get the same price they paid to get Vanek, as 20 games plus playoffs is about half to a quarter of what they thought they were buying from Buffalo in October.
Will the Vanek deal set the price for the other wingers in play like Ales Hemsky, Mike Cammalleri and Matt Moulson? Or will some of them go before GM Garth Snow pulls the trigger?
Meanwhile, speaking of chatter, after rumors of all three California teams being interested yesterday, the denials continued to flow Wednesday morning:
Still no interest from Kings in Vanek. More focused on Moulson or Gaborik or maybe Cammalleri...
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 5, 2014
UPDATE: Indeed, the Kings have reportedly acquired Marian Gaborik. UPDATE2: Or are about to.