Insider Trading: Hughes, Marner battling injuries before 4 Nations

TSN ‘s Hockey Insiders discuss some key injuries going into the 4 Nations, the Flames’ interest in Dylan Cozens, the Sabres still reeling from the hit on Tage Thompson and their lack of response, the Canucks’ search for a centre, who benefits the most from a surging salary cap and Pavel Bure asking a fellow IIHF council member to reinstate Russia.

Injury concerns for Quinn Hughes, Mitch Marner mounting ahead of 4 Nations Face-Off

Duthie: Your full slate of Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, Darren Dreger - we knew this would be happen, there would be at least a couple of key players injured leading up to the 4 Nations Face-Off and CJ, it's going to present some really interesting decisions for the players and their teams.

Johnston: Yeah and let's start with Quinn Hughes on that one. The Vancouver Canucks captain has been known to be gutting through an injury here over the last few weeks and he missed a game on Sunday and then on Tuesday morning, he skated again but was unable to play on that night in that game.

That's forced Team USA at this point to at least prepare for the possibility that Hughes won't be with them at the tournament. The hope is still that he can get there, but with this injury and this timing, there is some concern over whether or not he'll be able to go.

As for Mitch Marner with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has not skated since Saturday, he suffered what's considered a minor injury in that game against Edmonton. At this point it sounds like he will be available for Canada, but Hockey Canada will be monitoring his situation closely as well.

Calgary Flames seeking to add more youth to their lineup?

Duthie: And trade talk - the Calgary Flames go out and get Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee but they're still interested in some other young players?

LeBrun: Yeah namely they're interested in Dylan Cozens, and we should say that they're not alone. About two thirds of the league has checked in with the Buffalo Sabres about Cozens, and why not? 

Given that he's still a member of the Sabres it tells you that nothing has moved the needle. Calgary really likes the right shot of Cozens and has remained in contact with Buffalo on him.

The point here is that it would be a hockey deal if they were able to go next level in these conversations. The Flames, despite being in a playoff race, don't want to trade for a rental, they don't want to give up assets for a short-term deal.

The long-term view still has to trump all for the Flames, and if there was something there for Cozens, that would make sense for Calgary.

Buffalo Sabres may be in need of a culture shift after Tage Thompson hit

Dreger: A lot going on with the Sabres, and some of it not so good, including an injury to star forward Tage Thompson, who's listed day-to-day after after getting absolutely clobbered on the weekend by Stefan Noesen of the New Jersey Devils. To add literal insult to injury, it was a lack of response from his teammates that earned a meeting on Monday to discuss what went on. Why was nobody there to defend that action on the ice?

The message was pretty simple with all involved in that meeting: If this happens again and there is no response, then there will be internal consequences, but Alex Tuch, Cozens and others have said that it won't happen again.

Vancouver Canucks could be looking for centre help after J.T. Miller trade

Duthie: Canucks did some major lineup reshaping with those two back-to-back deals last week and they're not quite finished on that, Pierre?

LeBrun: Yeah, this is in the category of 'easier said than done,' and the moment they lose J.T. Miller they want to try to go out and replace him. Obviously they got a very good young player in Filip Chytil but the priority for the Canucks is to go find help at centre.

If that happens before March 7, that would be a great bonus because they're still in a  playoff race, but the reality is, bigger picture, they're going to try to get that done between now and next fall.

And to Cozens, by the way, we just talked about him in three consecutive notes here, he is among the type of players that Vancouver is interested in, we know they've had discussions with Buffalo.

That had to do more with Elias Pettersson, and we know the Canucks have taken Pettersson off the market for now, they want to see how he responds after the Miller trade so let's see if Vancouver can pick that up in a different form when it comes to Buffalo.

Who stands to benefit the most from the expanding salary cap?

Duthie: A lot of soon-to-be free agents and a lot of agents period are excited about the vastly expanded salary cap over the next few years CJ: Have you looked at it enough to figure out who exactly or what category of player will benefit the most from this?

Johnston: Well I've certainly sampled some opinions out there and the flavour of those discussions and text exchanges would be that yes, the superstars of course will benefit from this, Mikko Rantanen, Mitch Marner, but the feeling is that they were going to be paid anyway as pending UFAs coming into this summer and that maybe some of the next tier of players below them - top-six forwards, top-four defencemen but not the absolute superstars might be the ones that benefit the most.

If we look at the UFA board for this summer, that's guys like Nicolai Ehlers, a pending UFA with the Winnipeg Jets, maybe Brock Boeser in Vancouver, Brock Nelson. Players of that ilk, the feeling is that those guys are probably going to get to be a $7 or $8 million player, pushing to $9 million in this brave new world, and so the agents of course are lining up and licking their chops with the possibility of getting new deals.

Pavel Bure seeks to have Russia reinstated to IIHF events

Duthie: The IIHF has decided not to reinstate Russia for the next two years in World Championship events despite the pleas of one former NHL Russian star.

Dreger: Pavel Bure, who was a council member on behalf of Russia and he spoke passionately in hopes of getting Russia and Belarus reinstated in international play but that wasn't the case.

The IIHF, citing safety concerns at international events - as a follow-up, Bure issued a statement through the Russian Ice Hockey Federation saying that any of these safety issues could be looked after with additional security and Bure went as far as to say that looking at the Olympics in 2026 in Italy: That's an International Olympic Committee decision, not an IIHF one.

Duthie: That will be an interesting one, of course the IOC has let Russian athletes compete, although not under their flag, despite sanctions in the past.