The NHL’s trade deadline is at 3 p.m. today, and the events of the last month have made it abundantly clear that the marketplace favors the sellers.

Each of the three local teams has a vastly different agenda, with the salary cap playing as much of a role as the teams’ place in the standings.

The Devils haven’t made any moves yet, but their inactivity is of little surprise; they have essentially no cap space to work with. So instead, GM Lou Lamoriello’s primary concern at present is figuring out a way to fit Richard Matvichuk under the cap, for the Devils want the blueliner (currently on long-term injured reserve) to get some playing time in advance of the postseason.

The Islanders, on the other hand, have cleared a tremendous amount of cap room this season, dealing Alexei Zhitnik and Michael York to the Flyers in two separate trades (for Freddy Meyer and Randy Robitaille, respectively). Last week, they spent some of that cap space on defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, who has emerged as the team’s best option to quarterback the power play. Yesterday, GM Garth Snow pulled off a deal with the Capitals, sending a second-round pick to Washington in exchange for talented forward Richard Zednik.

But the biggest challenge Snow is facing right now is what to do about Jason Blake, the team’s most popular and productive player. As of press time, Snow has been unable to come to terms on a longterm deal with the All-Star, so it’s possible that he will be traded. Needless to say, this development won’t sit well with the Isles’ deservedly skeptical fan base, and Zednik — a chronic underachiever — cannot possibly be expected to fill Blake’s skates.

St. Louis Blues forward Bill Guerin (a product of the Devils’ system) has been prominently mentioned in rumors, and could potentially be a good fit on Long Island. But it’s unclear whether Snow would be willing to part with a first-round pick and a prospect (the believed asking price) to land a 36-year-old unrestricted free agent-to-be.

Two deals involving the renting of veteran defenseman yielded surprisingly high returns this weekend, and left good reason to wonder why the 12th-place Rangers haven’t gotten more involved in this obvious seller’s market.

On Saturday, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren acquired talented young blueliner Braydon Coburn from the Thrashers in exchange for Zhitnik, in what might go down as the most puzzling trade of the season. The 34-year-old Zhitnik’s best season came way back in 1997–98, when he tallied 45 points and a plus-19 rating for the Buffalo Sabres (he hasn’t come close that production since).

And on Sunday, the Canadiens sent disgruntled veteran blueliner Craig Rivet (and a fifth-round pick) to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for promising young defenseman Josh Gorges and a 2007 first-round pick. This deal smacked of desperation on the part of the Sharks, as they gave away a talented young rearguard and a high draft pick for (at best) a second-pair defenseman whose effectiveness is somewhat stunted in the post-lockout NHL.

That teams are passing around high draft picks like M&M’s is a strong indication that there isn’t much confidence in the depth of the 2007 draft class. But what’s most puzzling of all about these developments is that Rangers GM Glen Sather has stood pat, failing to define his team’s role as either a “buyer” or a “seller.”

For one obvious example, perhaps Sharks GM Doug Wilson had no interest in Rangers rearguard Aaron Ward, who is comparable to Rivet by every meaningful measure. But more likely, Sather has just been sitting and waiting, hoping against hope that his foundering team will somehow get back on track. And in fact, it’s likely he waited too long, and that most of the best chips have already been distributed to other more resourceful GMs.

Of course, it’s also possible that Sather actually believes his team is playoff-bound. But if that were the case, one must imagine that he’d have taken a flyer on Bryan Berard, who might have injected some life into the team’s lifeless power play before things got to their current level of direness. Sather had more than enough cap space to pull off the deal, and given that Berard was placed on waivers yesterday, the asking price obviously couldn’t have been very high.

There’s a growing sense that this Rangers team is dying on the vine, and there’s good reason to wonder whether things will improve in any meaningful way in 2007–08. Much of the roster’s core will be one year further from its prime, Jaromir Jagr will be in the final season of his contract, and the Rangers will more likely be completely consumed by uncertainty.

Would Jagr give Sather permission to shop him? If the Flyers were able to procure two top prospects (Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent) and two draft picks (a first- and third-rounder) from the Predators, it stands to reason that Jagr would command a similar price on the open market. And given the team’s current state, there’s little reason to believe that things will turn around before Jagr’s deal ends.

Without question, this would be a disappointing turn of events for the Rangers, who were seemingly primed for a long playoff run when the puck dropped for the 2006–07 season. But unless Sather’s got a masterful plan to turn things around quickly, the Rangers would be wise to instead pursue any and every available option to trade veterans (from Jagr on down) for some much-needed young talent.

The Rangers should be set in goal (with Lundqvist and Alvaro Montoya). Their defense — with Tyutin, Marc Staal, and Bobby Sanguinetti — should be strong as well. But up front, the Rangers don’t have a single forward prospect who strikes fear into opposing goaltenders, and that needs to change if this team is ever to emerge as a bona fide Cup contender in today’s talent-focused NHL.

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.