Morning Hits: Trade Deadline, Sarich, Red Wings, and Predators
  • Renaud Lavoie: The NHL Trade Deadline will be February 29th at 3:00 PM ET.
  • Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald: Veteran defenseman Cory Sarich is wanting to return to the NHL after missing all of last season due to a bad cycling crash in July of 2014. He suffered five cracked bertebrae, muffler-burns to his shoulder and wrist, and severe road rash.

    “I spoken with a few teams,” Sarich, 37, said after an informal morning session at WinSport. “That’s been obviously the goal — to try to see if there’s any interest out there. Nothing so far. I’m just going to keep skating … trying to get my legs underneath me.”

  • Ansar Khan of MLive: Red Wings Petr Mrazek has the inside edge on the No. 1 position after taking it from Jimmy Howard at the end of last season. Mrazek is entering a contract year.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press: The Red Wings are considering moving Riley Sheahan from center to the wing after the addition of Brad Richards this offseason. A move may happen when Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen (if he can return) are healthy. Sheahan will be a RFA at the end of the season, and if he has another good year, he’ll be getting a nice raise from the $950,000 cap hit he carries this season.
  • Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News: Red Wings Johan Franzen wants to continue playing, but is not sure if he can, or should continue playing.

    “Well, it feels good, so far. It’s probably too early to tell, though, until I start playing games.

    “I’m going at it pretty hard, trying to go a little bit too much, now, actually, just to see that I can take it. Grinding it.”

    His current plan is to be ready for Opening Night.

    “That’s the plan,” he said. “If I keep feeling like I do now, I think it should work.”

  • Adam Vingan of the Tennessean: (mailbag) Vingan thinks the Predators plan is to have Steve Moses on their third line as they are looking for three scoring lines. Cody Hodgson should be centering their third line.