- The only trades in the NHL these days are for young players who haven't panned out in a place and need a change of scenery. That's what happened to Benoit Pouliot and Guiullaume Latendresse. NHL scouts say Pouliot, the No. 4 pick in Sidney Crosby's 2005 draft year, is a smoother skater and a more creative offensive player than Latendresse, but he has needed a kick in the butt to get moving for a long time. Latendresse is a big player with fair hands, but he doesn't have a lot of hockey savvy and isn't tough for his size.

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Photograph by : Jeff Gross

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- Say what you want about Doug MacLean, who admittedly goofed on some of his Columbus Blue Jackets' high draft picks as their general manager. But he didn't go wrong with Rick Nash. Is there a better one-on-one player in the NHL today? He swoops and holds off people like Jaromir Jagr, when he was in his prime. On a lot of nights, Nash is the best player on the ice, even if he doesn't register a point.

- That three-way trade last March that brought Patrick O'Sullivan to Edmonton, with Erik Cole going to the Carolina Hurricanes and Justin Williams to the Los Angeles Kings, was actually a four-team deal, with the Buffalo Sabres in the picture, but they dropped out.

- One of the reasons the Minnesota Wild have been picking up forwards (Chuck Kobasew, Andrew Ebbett) is because one of their top three guys, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, has played one game because he can't get over his concussion. He made a special trip down to the rink this week to see Patrice Bergeron when the Boston Bruins were in Minnesota to talk to him. Bergeron's advice: Stay patient and get another interest. Bergeron took up cooking.

- Former Oilers defenceman Matt Greene has tried surfing in L.A. He's living on the beach, but he's never going to make a living at it. "I don't have the surfers' build and I'm not too buoyant," said Greene.

- Jordan Eberle, who could be the first-line right-winger on Canada's world junior team with Cody Hodgson at centre and Taylor Hall on left wing, now leads the Western Hockey league with 23 goals in 23 games and 50 points. The Regina Pats need him to make the playoffs, but they might deal him to a Memorial Cup contender.

- Last season, Tomas Plekanec bombed as he tried to play for a rich new deal in Montreal. This year, as an unrestricted free agent, he's in the top 30 in NHL scoring, and Canadiens GM Bob Gainey might break from his usual path, and try to sign him early in the new year. He's probably a $4 million US a year second-line centre.

- Semyon Varlamov's weakness has been his catching hand, something shooters pick up on, but he's done some remedial work with goalie coach Arturs Irbe and he's rebounded from a rough early-season patch with the Washington Capitals.

- Pretty interesting that Alex Ovechkin gets tossed for a very borderline hit on Buffalo's Patrick Kaleta, one of the league's better disturbers. The next Buffalo game, Kaleta clobbers Philadelphia Flyers' Jared Ross with a vicious blindside check and also got tossed out and then suspended by the NHL for two games.

- Former Oilers defenceman Danny Syvret cleared waivers this week in Philadelphia. He lost his job to Latvian Oskars Bartulis.

- Coaches coach and writers opine, but Florida Panthers' Pete DeBoer has decided for the second straight year not to play goalie Tomas Vokoun against his old Nashville Predators squad. Why? You'd think he'd be looking for a psychological edge.

- The Ottawa Senators goofed on their 2005 top pick, defenceman Brian Lee (ninth overall), who is too passive and doesn't get enough offence from the back-end to offset that. He's prime trade-bait.

- Bruins winger Milan Lucic was the curiosity item at Canada's summer orientation Olympic camp. Some people were wondering if his penchant for pushing people around with his big, banging body could work in Vancouver in 2010. But a broken finger, and now a high-ankle sprain, have effectively kicked him from the running.

- The sports world lost one of the good people in the last two weeks when local golf pro Ron Belbin succumbed to brain cancer. There wasn't a nicer guy in the city, or somebody who cared as much about a craft that all hockey players love.