Wow, I promise I didn't see this until after I made my comments above, but apparently Bob McKenzie said the exact same thing (bold added by me):
Countdown to TradeCentre: Saturated rental market? - Article - TSN
"TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie was asked Monday morning what kind of return the Montreal Canadiens could get for centre Tomas Plekanec.
"McKenzie said it's a tough question to answer since the rental market hasn't been set yet, but he noted that an oversaturated market could drive down the cost of rentals.
"Short answer is I don’t know,” McKenzie told TSN Radio 690 Montreal. “We haven’t seen any rentals move here. And the rental market fluctuates year from year, and I haven’t sat down and gone through the previous years with a fine-tooth comb. But if anything, and I could be wrong on this, I’m going to guess that the rental prices are going to continue to drop, that rentals are not going to be as popular as they have been in the past.
“And I guess sometimes it’s just the basic law of supply and demand. But it sure seems like there are a lot of potential rentals out there, especially scoring wingers more so than checking or depth centres. I mean, Edmonton has got Mark Letestu, who could be in the same sort of conversation as a guy like Tomas Plekanec. I haven’t sat and gone through all of the teams to see what other guys might become available in that regard.
“
But the (Evander) Kane and Rick Nash rentals will probably drive the rental market in terms of setting a price. And right now the Sabres are looking for three elements - a first-round pick, a player off the roster, a prospect. I think that might be overly-ambitious. Because as we’ve talked about before, if you look at what Martin Hanzal did or didn’t do for the Minnesota Wild and the owner coming out afterward and saying,
‘I wish we hadn’t done that Martin Hanzal deal,’ I think with things being as tight as they are and teams not even guaranteed a playoff spot – are they going to give up a first-round pick and a prospect for a player and then potentially miss the playoffs. People usually don’t pay rental prices to get yourself into the playoffs; you do it to push yourself over the top if you think you can win the Cup, and that’s the rationale for giving up as much as teams like the Rangers and Buffalo, the asking price for those guys.
“So getting back to your original question on Plekanec, I don’t know. I would think it would probably just be a draft pick, but I don’t know which one. I’d be surprised if it’s a second-round pick, but I guess if there was a team that really felt they had a need and that Plekanec was the only guy that fit it somebody would, but that might be overly-ambitious on my end.
“And as I said before, I’ll be curious to see if Plekanec even moves.”
"Plekanec is not listed on the TSN Trade Bait board despite his expiring contract. The list does, however, feature two centres on expiring deals in Letestu and Derek Ryan. The market is flooded with left wingers with six pending free agents in the top 13, including Kane and Nash."
So maybe it's a game of wait and see what either Nash or Kane end up going for, but it's all the more reason I hope the Wings get a good return for Green, since forwards tend to be less valuable to begin with, and it looks like this year it might be an even larger discrepancy than usual. Unless Detroit happens to find a buyer who WANTS a scoring winger with term left on their deal. Or a team desperate for a guy like Glendening. We'll see.
