“There’s a lot of guys looking for players and not a lot willing to part with players,” he said during a Tuesday phone conversation. “I don’t know if it’s going to change a ton the next couple weeks.”

The Lightning and Islanders aren’t ready to be sellers just yet.

“Teams that are out of it are looking more towards the future,” Bowman said. “If that’s the case, there’s nothing you can do. Those teams are looking at the summer and going, ‘You know what? Why are we going to trade him away?’”

If the right center was made available, they would be interested despite recently acquiring Brendan Morrison. They will target defensemen. Canadiens Hal Gill would be an option.

“The one thing our entire team needs right now is just to go out on the ice with the idea that we’re good enough because we are. Obviously, if we can do things to make our team better I know there’s not a GM in the league who’s working harder than Chuck [Fletcher] on this. But having said that, we’ve beaten all the good teams in the West. We’ve proven ourself. When we play our game, we’ve proven what we can do.”