Reading Between The Lines Of Chris MacFarland's Presser

Trade-market options starting to dwindle too, but maybe this team doesn't need much?

Chris MacFarland met the media today, and I’ll give him credit: He is already very good at saying a bunch of words and saying essentially absolutely nothing at the same time. Pierre Lacroix and Quoteless Joe Sakic would be proud.

MacFarland tosses around GM-speak easily, things like “our group” and “our core” and “there’s a lot of good hockey teams out there” and yadda yadda yadda.

I tried to read between the lines today of what he was saying about the coming trade deadline, though, and came away with these impressions:

• It’s probably NOT going to be a volcanic trade deadline for the defending Stanley Cup champs. Part of that may be because all the best players are already gone to other teams. Part of that is because the Avs don’t want to part with much more in the way of draft assets and/or top prospects for rentals. Part of that is because the salary cap is only going to go up $1 million next year and the Avs will be squeezed more because of it.