ST KILDA will use trade week to ease the strain on its salary cap, but the Saints will not be forced to trade out any of its star players, according to the club's head of football, Chris Pelchen.

Pelchen admitted St Kilda needed to use the player exchange period to provide itself with salary cap relief, but moved to quash speculation the likes of Brendon Goddard or Sam Gilbert would be sacrificed.

"Obviously we need some stability in terms of what we do with our TPP [Total Player Payments] going forward, but I wouldn't say to Saints fans that we're expecting to trade out a big name," Pelchen told trade week radio on afl.com.au on Monday.

"Not at this stage - I wouldn't expect that to happen.

"I say to our supporters and the industry as a whole that it is not our intention to trade any of those big name players out. I'd certainly like to put that theory to bed straight away.

"I'm not into giving guarantees because I don't think it's appropriate, but certainly our full expectation is that those boys will be at St Kilda at the end of the week.
 
"There's been a lot of conjecture surrounding our TPP position. We're in a delicate position, but at the same time it's still very manageable.

"I wouldn't say that we're over the cap - that would be wrong. Basically our cap is in a strained position, that's a fair assumption to make, but at the same time, we're not over the cap. We'll be under the cap in 2012. All we're trying to do is manage it in a professional manner."

With the club's top eight to 10 players off the table, according to Pelchen, the Saints will need to look elsewhere on their list for salary cap relief, but he said negotiations were ongoing to keep Farren Ray and Zac Dawson at the club.

"We would like them to stay, but at the same time, they're uncontracted," he said.

"We're continuing negotiations with their managers as recently as over the weekend. I wouldn't say negotiations have broken down - if anybody wants to suggest they have then they're wrong.
 
"[But] negotiations are two-way. They've got their expectations and we've got our limitations and we're just working within that."   

St Kilda enters the crucial trade period without a head coach, a situation Pelchen expects to change within "seven to eight days", but he said the club had a concrete plan in place for trade week.

"I'm not sure about being the aggressor this week, but we would certainly like to be active, that's our intention," he said.

"We know we have to make changes to our list and we're committed to making changes to our list, but that will be done in a very deliberate way - they won't be reactive.

"I'm not sure if [those moves] will be aggressive, but yes there will be a number of changes to our list over the course of this week. Having said that, I don't expect they'll be the players [Goddard or Gilbert] that you've mentioned."

No trades are official until paperwork has been accepted by the AFL and formally recognised after 2pm on Monday, October 17.

Follow our complete coverage of the 2011 AFL exchange period from October 10-17. Join the AFL trade conversation on Twitter: use #tradeweek in your tweets.