From tonight’s Insider Trading on TSN:

[pull_quote_center]McKenzie:If you’ve been hearing a lot of Vernon Fiddler trade rumours it’s because two weeks ago he went to the Dallas Stars and said he wants more ice time and wants a bigger role, and if he can’t get it with Dallas than let it be somewhere else. He’s on an expiring contract at $1.8 million and an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. There is interest in him from other teams but the Stars are wining and things are going well, so they’re not going to give him away. Keep an eye on this one.

Dreger: The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of those teams that have had discussions with Dallas about Fiddler. Toronto’s a little bit concerned about his age and the money, but the Leafs are looking for something. They’ve also had discussions on potentially trading John-Michael Liles to the Carolina Hurricanes but nothing imminent there.[/pull_quote_center]

When John Michael Liles is in the minors, the Leafs are pinged for 2,950,000 on the cap. If the Leafs were to deal Liles and retain half of his salary (maximum amount), they would be on the hook for 1,937,000. That doesn’t make sense to do over the length of the deal, but something like a million might. The maximum number of retained salaries is three per team, so this would put the Leafs at the max if it were to transpire. One stumbling block here is that Carolina has no more cap space than the Leafs.

When it comes to Vernon Fiddler, think of an upgrade on Smithson but a similar player type. 33 years old, veteran of nearly 600 games (has collected around 90 more points than Smithson in that time), plays around 2 minutes on the penalty kill, wins 53% of draws (this season), though surprisingly poor on the dot last season in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill. The downside is Fiddler is going to cost an asset, likely a mid round pick.

Nothing looks imminent here, but it seemed worth passing along.