The Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames have their hands tied as the NHL trade deadline approaches.
CALGARY -- The Calgary Flames have the cap space to go out and get the defenceman they need to bolster a playoff run. The problem is, the Flames are so lean on draft picks that acting general manager Jay Feaster might have to tinker with a winning roster to get a deal done.
In Vancouver, Mike Gillis has been flirting with the cap ceiling all season long. After all the injuries, he's looking for a depth defenceman or a fourth-line centre. But he can only afford a player whose annual salary is about $1 million.
Of course, we pointed out to Gillis, he could always trade a roster player to clear some cap room and improve the quality of the acquisition. It's an idea he didn't like.
"We're No. 1 in the league? Why would I change this roster?" he said.
Meanwhile, Edmonton has tons of cap room and more holes in their roster than both Vancouver and Calgary combined. But as useful additions like James Neal, Blake Wheeler, Chris Stewart and Joe Colborne have been snapped up by other GMs, Oiler fans are beginning to wonder if Steve Tambellini has what it takes to turn an Ales Hemsky or Dustin Penner into valuable pieces for the future.
Tambellini has time on his side, while Gillis has a Stanley Cup calibre team even if he doesn't make a single move.
The guy on the hot seat is Feaster, who may have been thinking rebuild when he took over the job from the ousted Darryl Sutter. All of a sudden his Flames are in sixth place in the West, and he's got to play his cards like he's a Cup contender.
"It's a heck of a lot better analysis when you're in the position the guys have put us in now," Feaster said. "We've identified assets we would be willing to move out. You have those conversations with teams all the time. I get the phone calls: 'What are you doing with this player? What about that player?'"
Feaster knows he's got no second or third round draft pick in the 2011 draft however. You'd have to believe that would preclude Feaster from dealing away any more picks.
"If you're wiling to give up a 2nd in 2012, a team might be wiling to do that," he said. "But, then you're back into that deficit spending. That kind of deficit spending catches up with you."
It's caught up with the Flames for sure. Calgary is an older team that is capped out, without a lot of blue chip talent in the pipeline.
Feaster's plan, as is Tambellini's, is to build an organization with a strong roster and a constant flow of incoming drafted talent. Much like Vancouver has now.
"In Tampa," Feaster said of his former gig, "We knew were going to run it hot. We were going to go hell bent for making the playoffs. We weren't always in a deficit spending position like we are here, with not having a 2nd or 3rd this year. This situation is definitely more unsettled than what I had in Tampa."
Vancouver will audition Cody Hodgson as the fourth-line centre from now to the deadline. If Hodgson can get the job done, it will free Gillis up to add more depth on the blue-line.
"We have a few games before the trading deadline...there are a lot of things up in the air," head coach Alain Vigneault told reporters in Vancouver. "We still haven't come up with a decision on [a fourth-line centre]."
Three teams, three sets of needs. And only one week left to get the dealing done.
