The truth is there is nothing going on. There are some AHL players doing the usual relocation to Europe, no trades, no meaningful signings, and nothing of interest.

And the NHL and NHLPA seem to keep the arbitration business fairly quiet, but there were only 11 players originally heading to arb, and some have signed. Gabriel Vilardi was likely the only meaningful player, and he signed a six by $7.5M contract a few days ago.

I've seen some articles teasing the idea that there will be lots of trades this summer, and I think that's totally wrong. There might be a couple, but here's how I see it:

For now, everyone but Pittsburgh is trying to add players, to get better. This is not the summer of trades, therefore, it's the summer of re-sign your own players. The weak UFA group got weaker quickly due to this trend.

So now you have 31 teams who either are playoff teams, likely to contest for the playoffs or who are seriously interested in internal growth who do not want to unload anyone for picks. Dallas is not trading Jason Robertson for a bad first a guy they've never heard of and Easton Cowan. Or any other team's futures package. They'd consider Matt Knies and some extras. And of course the Leafs would not. And that situation gets multiplied across all the teams.

So everyone is waiting. Kyle Dubas is very patient. He is not trading his older players for junk now, he wants desperate customers in the first blush of realization their team isn't as good as they thought it was. And in the fullness of time, the other teams that will sift to the bottom of the standings will patiently wait too.

And here's the other thing. Dubas is not swayed by the fact that the Islanders won the lottery. Neither are a fair few other GMs, but there are a lot out there who, even if they don't consciously know it, will fall for the trick of thinking they don't need to be last to get the first overall next summer. It's going to take longer for them to be swayed into tanking.

Tanking is out of fashion in the NHL, though, and peer pressure rules in most front offices.

So no, I don't think the trading is going to start until into the season, and it may actually be earlier than usual. Don't fall into the thinking that it's the deadline or nothing. There are teams with cap space, they don't need prorated additions.

And of course there is the Olympics with the NHL dark from February 6 to 24. Before then is better than after if you're getting a player not in the Olympics. After is better if you're after one who is.

But the Leafs need a winger! And yup they sure do. And Max Domi shouldn't be in the top six! Yup. You betcha.

And yet...

At the moment, the Leafs are poised to subtract a couple of forwards, possibly in training camp, add Max Pacioretty if he's good to go, and then wait patiently for the teams to blink and decide to hasten their drift down the standings.

As for us, the T25 will roll out after the August holiday this year and end sometime during training camp. If you want to be a guest voter, think about your availability in the first week of August, and a formal request will go out later on.

That's it for today. Who knows, maybe the NHL will prove me wrong and all those amazing trades will totally happen.

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

From The Branches