Dreger dishes on Sabres at deadline
Nick Mendola
[email protected](WGR 550) -- For those hoping the Sabres are going to make a big trade deadline splash, TSN's Darren Dreger didn't do much to stoke their fires.
"I don't think the Sabres are hot on anything or looking to add anything specific," Dreger said during a Tuesday morning appearance on The Howard Simon Show, admitting that the only player he's heard connected with Buffalo was Carolina's Ray Whitney, and that was a few weeks ago.
Dreger was asked a number of questions regarding movement around the league, including one on whether Sabres soon-to-be unrestricted free agent defenseman Toni Lydman could be traded.
"It's possible," Dreger said. "His name has certainly been thrown out there in terms of players people in my business have to keep an eye on. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Darcy Regier is shopping Toni Lydman... but there are a lot of available NHL defenseman with quality experience."
"The Lydmans, (Aaron) Wards and Joe Corvos are going to attract attention," Dreger said. "Is the rate of return worth losing that experience going into the playoffs?"
Dreger thinks a lot of moves could be forthcoming, and was surprised more deals weren't announced yesterday. General managers weren't allowed to trade players, but were allowed to talk with each other during the Olympic roster freeze.
"I know from my sources that many general managers did take advantage of it," Dreger said. "I was a little surprised that only a few trades happened yesterday."
Dreger said it doesn't appear there are any superstar deals that will get done in the next couple days.