The NHL’s trade deadline is less than two months away but judging from the chatter I’m hearing around the league, the conversations between teams have absolutely picked up since the holiday break.



As one GM put it to me recently, for most teams, it’s about laying the groundwork over the next few weeks for what might be out there post All-Star break. You do your due diligence in January and act in February.



Some teams will get ahead of things. Veteran GM Jim Rutherford in Pittsburgh loves his January deals and given the struggles of the back-to-back Cup champions, look for him to try that again this month.



Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton are teams to watch, too, as they try to shake up struggling outfits. Not sure there’s any GM that’s talked to more teams than the Senators’ Pierre Dorion, who has gotten calls on the likes of Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Cody Ceci, among others.



But in this...