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Trading deadline day is a little over a month away, the time of year when the pace of NHL transactions traditionally moves from glacially slow to hyper-speed in a frantic 72-hour period.

Naturally, that pattern could change in a year of exceptional parity, based on the inability of any team to fall completely out of the playoff race. Even the once left-for-dead Los Angeles Kings are in the midst of a minor revival, with three consecutive wins heading into their Friday date with the Calgary Flames - although one would suspect that the 15-point gap between them and eighth place is probably too much to overcome.

So the Kings could become sellers and the Toronto Maple Leafs should become sellers, along with perhaps the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ultimately, supply and demand will be a factor in determining movement at the deadline, but so will be a relatively new phenomenon spawned by the last collective bargaining agreement - the increasing tendency of players to ask for a no-movement clause in their contracts. It used to be, under the old CBA, that teams couldn't grant a no-trade clause until the age of 31, or when players qualified for unrestricted free agency in the old deal.

That still applies today, except now with players as young as 25 hitting the open market, far more are eligible for that contract stipulation and far more are insisting upon it as a condition for signing. Indeed, most of the prominent free agents that did hit the market last year - Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Daniel Briere - were all able to coax mega-dollars out of their new teams, along with the written promise that they wouldn't be traded, waived, demoted to the minors or spoken to in a stern voice by their respective coaches (OK, we made the last part up).

Still, the move towards the no-movement clause gives players greater control over their own destinies than ever before. It was devised by agents who saw teams get around the simple no-trade clause by offering up unwanted players on waivers, or worse, from a players' perspective, demoting them to the minors.

If there was a shift in the way contracts are now being written, the NHL can probably thank the New Jersey Devils for that development. The Devils decided in the first post-lockout year to demote a pair of long-term NHLers on expensive contracts, Alex Mogilny and Dan McGillis, to the minors so that their salaries wouldn't count against the cap. Mogilny and McGillis were eventually paid what was owed them; they just had to go to the Albany River Rats to collect their cheques.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, a total of 104 NHL players currently have some control over their final destination in a possible trade scenario, through one of four options: A firm no-trade clause; a firm no-movement clause; a limited no-trade or no-movement clause (in which a player must provide a club with a written list of possible teams the player is willing to negotiate trades with); or a final possibility in which a player will get no-movement or no-trade options for some but not the entire term of his contract.

Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke doesn't think the prevalence of no-movement clauses is as big an obstacle to deals as the dollar restrictions of the new CBA, but he doesn't like them much either.

"I think it's still a big problem," said Burke. "We have one (no-movement deal) and that's for J.S. Giguere and that's because his son has medical problems and needs to be near UCLA medical school. As well as he's played for us and what a great guy he was, had it been for any other reason, I still wouldn't have done it."

Burke went on to explain his reasons: "I think they're coach killers and they put the player in a bad spot more often than they help him. Once a team decides they don't want you and you say, 'I've got a no-trade,' then I say, 'fine, sit up here near me.' To me, I don't think they accomplish what they're intended to accomplish. The coach resents them because he's yelling at the player and the player's looking at him, saying, 'I'm going to be here next year, not so sure about you.' So we have very few of them and we intend to keep it that way."

Last month, the Ducks engineered a trade with the St. Louis Blues, adding veteran centre Doug Weight, who had a no-trade clause, in exchange for centre Andy McDonald, who didn't. The move was made, largely for salary-cap reasons, to accommodate the return of Scott Niedermayer to the Ducks' active roster - and it took a few days to unfold. The primary reason: The Blues needed to coax Weight into waiving his no-trade clause.

According to Burke, when the two teams starting talking trade, the Blues volunteered to go to Weight and see if he would consider waiving his no-trade clause.

"So they approached him and initially he said no. He promised his wife they'd settle down there and all that, but then he thought about it and said, 'OK, I'll do it.' "

Last year, a number of players - including the Pittsburgh Penguins' Gary Roberts and Georges Laraque - waived no-trade clauses to get moved at the deadline.

If the Kings continue to fall out of the playoff race, one of this year's most attractive rent-a-player options may be defenceman Rob Blake. At 38, Blake is in the midst of a strong middle third of the season. His plus-minus is vastly improved since the first six weeks; his points total is getting up there again (25 in 47 games overall) and last Tuesday, he became the all-time leader in games played by a Kings defenceman (781), edging ahead of Mattias Norstrom.

Blake, whose name has circulated in the rumour mill for almost a month now, clarified his position in an interview Friday. He said that at this juncture, he and Kings general manager Dean Lombardi had not spoken about the possibility of him waiving his own no-trade clause to go to a contender as a rental at the deadline.

"It's never been agreed that I'd waive my no-trade and I've never been approached about it," said Blake. "I don't know where that started, but I knew it would eventually creep in, given my situation."

However, Blake did not rule out the possibility of moving at the deadline, if Lombardi pitched the idea to him.

"I don't know how I'd approach it," said Blake. "My philosophy was to come back here and remain a King for the rest of my career. Unfortunately, when you get in last place, things do change. I haven't really sat down with Lombardi and spoke to him, but I'm sure that's something that will happen in the next little while - that we're going to sit down and discuss what the future holds.

"Obviously, you think about it, but until it happens, I don't know what I'd do in that situation."

Blake, who is still averaging more than 22 ½ minutes of playing time per night, would be a huge upgrade for any number of teams seeking a skilled, physical presence on defence. Beyond his role in mentoring Kings rookie defenceman Jack Johnson, coach Marc Crawford says Blake has been an effective player for the team, "especially in the last two months.

"He's playing just terrific. He's getting lots of shots. His shot totals are way up. When Rob plays, when he's looking to shoot and looking to jump up in the play, that's when I feel he's at his best. Defensively, he's played very physically this year as well. Most of guys, as they get up in years, they recognize it takes a little more out of them to play the physical role. But Rob's physical game has been way higher than it was last year. I think he's feeling good about his body too. He had the off-season surgery for his hip, the labrum problem. For him, he's skating better and I think he's feeling better. Those things, all in combination, are giving us high-end, quality play from Rob. He's been a pleasure to be around this year for sure."

As for the Kings' goals in the short term, Blake suggested: "It's an important stretch for us to get competitive down the stretch, even if we fall out of the race. We've got the majority of our team, 25 and under, playing pretty well, but they haven't played in a playoff game. They need that experience. Pittsburgh last year played great, got in the playoffs - and that experience is really going to help them this year.

"Unfortunately, we don't have that situation. We've got to at least get to the point where we're competitive and we're mathematically still in the race. Last year, we were 20 or 30 points out with 10 games to go. It's all young guys who just go out and play. You don't learn a lot there. Hopefully, we can pick up some ground in the next two weeks to hopefully get back in the race."

THE YEAR OF THE RETREAD: That's one of the more under-reported storylines in the 07-08 season. Ty Conklin is the most prominent recent example, but proof that old goalies don't die or necessarily even fade away comes in a number of different NHL precincts, where cast-offs named Patrick Lalime, Chris Osgood, Manny Legace are all in the midst of revitalizing their once flagging careers. Conklin's story is the most extraordinary, but it is hardly unique. He signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins last July as a free agent, after bouncing from Edmonton to Columbus to Buffalo in the post-lockout era. Oilers' fans remember him most for that gaffe in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final against the Colorado Avalanche when, pressed into service as an emergency injury replacement for Dwayne Roloson, he turned the puck over to Rod Brind'Amour behind the net and allowed the Carolina Hurricanes to win the opener in overtime. After that, the Oilers stuck with Jussi Markannen the rest of the way. Conklin appeared in only 34 NHL games over the past two seasons, registering just 11 victories in that span, and lost the battle to back-up Marc-Andre Fleury to Dany Sabourin, a Vancouver Canucks castoff. But when Fleury went down with an injury in December and the Penguins were linked to Curtis Joseph as a possible replacement, they opted to give Conklin a chance - and the results have been extraordinary. He is 10-0-1, with a 1.72 GAA and a .949 save percentage. His presence in the Penguins' lineup conjures up images of another rookie sensation. More than a decade ago, Lalime came up in the 1996-97 season and went 16 games in a row before losing for the first time. Of course, Lalime didn't last. He got into a contract squabble and eventually it took him another two full seasons to make it back to the NHL - or when the Ottawa Senators gave him a chance to be their No. 1 goalie. Once again, it looked like the end for Lalime after a dismal 4-18-8 season with the 05-06 Blues, but he signed with the Blackhawks two years ago. With Nikolai Khabibulin faltering at times this season, he's had some decent success as his fill-in. Of course, it's nothing like the kind of turnaround Manny Legace, the Detroit castoff has had with the Blues, after they let Lalime walk. Legace was picked to play in the All-Star Game after a 17-10-3 start to this season. He cost the Blues nothing, signing as an unrestricted free agent in August, 2006, after the Red Wings determined that they couldn't win a championship with him in goal. Legace's departure paved the way for Osgood's return to Detroit, the No. 1 defensive team in the league. Osgood, with a 19-3-2 record and a 1.95 GAA, is the primary reason for that, although Dominik Hasek has been coming on of late and the expectation is that he will eventually be the starter down the stretch and into the playoffs. So what's the secret to all these revivals? Conklin may have put his finger on part of the reason this week, as reported by the Associated Press: "The goalie is in the position where sometimes you can have a solid footprint on the game. What makes everything a lot easier is just knowing you're going to get some starts. But you have to keep playing well for that opportunity to be there." Maybe there's hope for Andrew Raycroft after all - once he gets out of Toronto, that is.

BAD BREAKS OR NO BREAKS AT ALL: Never liked the term sophomore jinx as it applied to any sport, but the sophomore slump is a reality that more than a few face and for proof, you'd need look no further than the Colorado Avalanche's Marek Svatos. Two years ago, in his first season, Svatos scored 31 goals in only 61 games, third highest in the league that year behind two guys named Ovechkin and Crosby. Last year, as Ovechkin and Crosby were taking their games to new heights, Svatos slumped to only 15 goals in 66 games, most of which he missed not as a result of an injury, but because coach Joel Quenneville didn't think he could play among the Avalanche's top dozen forwards most nights. This year, Svatos's teammate Paul Stastny did a great job of avoiding the sophomore slump. After pushing the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin for the Calder Trophy last season by scoring almost a point-a-game (78 in 82), Stastny was slightly ahead of that pace this season (49 in 46) when he underwent surgery for an emergency appendectomy Thursday and will miss two-to-three weeks. The Avalanche are already without two of their most prominent scorers, Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth, both out for extended periods with abdominal and ankle injuries respectively. Stastny is lucky on one level - with the All-Star break looming next weekend, the Avs have just four games left in January after Friday's date with the Chicago Blackhawks. Unhappily, the injury will prevent him from playing in his first-ever All-Star Game, which would have marked the seventh time that a son followed his father in NHL All-Star competition. Svatos, meanwhile, is in the midst of a third-year revival, in part because of all the aforementioned injuries but surely carries one of the most definitive Cy Young stats lines in recent NHL history: 20-2. That's not much different than his rookie season, when his goals and assists totals (32-18) were heavily to the former as well …By the way, the list of fathers and sons who've previously played in the All-Star Game is pretty eclectic. Some are obvious - Brett and Bobby Hull; Mark and Gordie Howe; Kevin and Bill Dineen; Brian and Lionel Conacher; Syl Apps Jr. and Sr. The one you might have missed: Lee and Lidio Fogolin. Lee Fogolin played in the 1986 All-Star Game as a member of the Edmonton Oilers. Lidio (or Lee Sr.) played in two - 1950 and 1951 and was once traded for Bert Olmstead and Vic Stasiuk.

THIS AND THAT: The list of players lurching towards unrestricted free agency dwindles with every new contract, but one of the most intriguing questions is will what the Sabres do with All-Star defenceman Brian Campbell. Campbell told the team this week that he wanted to suspend contract talks until the end of the season, so that he could concentrate on playing games. Fair enough. Even if the Sabres make the playoffs and go on an extended run through the post-season, there'll be time to sign him to a contract extension before the July 1 deadline, if both sides can agree on dollars and term. The problem is that the Sabres went that route last year with both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere and ended up losing both players, without getting anything in return. Can the Sabres, an organization that relies on developing its own talent, let that happen again? If they continue to muddle along outside the playoff race (that 0-5-0-5 run in the past 10 games isn't helping matters), then they may think about making Campbell available as a rent-a-player. Either way, it's a tough call for general manager Darcy Regier, who must surely be hoping that the Sabres can get their scoring act together once a couple of their injured forwards make it back into the lineup … The Thrashers' Marian Hossa is in a similar sort of predicament right now. Contract-wise, he's up at the end of the season and after a slow start, hit his stride this week. Like Campbell, Hossa was chosen to play in the All-Star Game, but that was more of a nod to his history and the fact that the game was being played in Atlanta than for his performance over the first four months of the season. But of late, he's caught fire - and that three-goal performance against the Red Wings earlier this week had to endear him to general manager/coach Don Waddell, who is from Detroit and - many moons ago - cut his teeth in the Wings' organization (Waddell's name is on the Stanley Cup as assistant GM of the 97-98 team). Hossa is coming off a 43-goal performance last year and obviously, wants to see signs that the Thrashers are a legitimate playoff contender before signing a long-term deal with them. Both Waddell and agent, Rich Winter, made it clear that negotiations on a possible extension are not dead yet, but if Hossa makes it to unrestricted free agency, he could command Scott Gomez-like dollars and term (seven years, $51.5 million) on the open market … In that 6-1 win over the St. Louis Blues, in which Legace hurt his arm, the Blackhawks' rookie of the year candidate Patrick Kane scored twice, matching his goals output of the previous 28 games. Kane scored once on the power play and then another odd one - into the empty net, with more than five minutes on the clock, as Blues' coach Andy Murray tried to get a goal and get his team back in the game (or maybe it was just a message that with how poorly Marek Schwartz was playing in relief of Legace, it didn't make a lot of difference anyway). Kane continues to lead all rookies in scoring, but the Phoenix Coyotes' Peter Mueller - who is one year older - is making a surge of late. There have been lots of times in NHL history where a rookie faded in the second half after a strong start and threw what looked like a dull race into an interesting contest. Montreal Canadiens fans may remember the immortal Kjell Dahlin as a case in point. Dahlin fell completely off the charts in the final months and ended up losing the Calder to Gary Suter. The Blackhawks' Jonathan Toews may have a say in it before all is said and done as well. Currently out with an injury, the break may help Toews get his second wind and finish strongly … Speaking of Original Six teams in the midst of an unexpected revival, even though the Bruins lost at home to the Maple Leafs Thursday night, they're clinging to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, thanks to the point they earned for the shootout loss - and they are doing it without two top-six forwards, Patrice Bergeron or Glen Murray, out with concussion and a hip injury respectively. Among all the kids getting on-the-job training in the NHL, the Bruins are getting the most out of centre David Krejci, their first pick, 64th overall, in the 2004 entry draft. Mostly though, they're getting great work from Zdeno Chara, who is having a far better second year with the Bruins than he did last year, his first in Beantown, where he had some trouble adjusting to his new club, after leaving the Senators for a mega-bucks contract.

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