The 9 NHL Players Most Likely to Be Dealt Next After the Vladimir Tarasenko Trade
The NHL trade deadline (March 3) is rapidly approaching, and we have already seen two significant moves, with Bo Horvat going from the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Islanders and Vladimir Tarasenko going from the St. Louis Blues to the New York Rangers.
There will no doubt be more moves, and potentially even more significant moves, in the coming weeks.
The Arizona Coyotes have already held defenseman Jakob Chychrun out of the lineup for what they called trade-related purposes.
Let's take a quick trip around the league and look at some other players who could be on the move over the next couple of weeks.
Timo Meier
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Every potential playoff team in the league should have Timo Meier at the top of their trade-deadline wishlist.
Not only does he bring top-line production, but he also has the sort of size NHL general managers and coaches want for the playoffs and is fearless around the net. He has already topped the 30-goal mark for the second year in a row and is on track to top the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career.
He is also, at least for the time being, affordable against the salary cap.
His salary cap hit for the 2022-23 season is only $6 million, which is a bargain for the sort of production he provides.
The hang-up teams are going to have is that he is a restricted free agent after this season and will require a $10 million qualifying offer if a new contract extension is not worked out. Even then his price tag will probably be at least in the $8-9 million range.
But even that should be an attractive price tag given his age (26) and skill level. He is still in the prime of his career and should have several years of top-line production ahead of him.
The price tag for him might be comparable to what the Ottawa Senators gave up for Alex DeBrincat this past offseason (three draft picks, including a first-round pick).
The Sharks are one of the league's worst teams and in need of a rebuild, and Meier could bring back a significant return to help kick-start that process.
With Carolina now swimming in salary-cap space following the Max Pacioretty injury, the Hurricanes would be an ideal fit for Meier.
Jakob Chychrun
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This is only a matter of when, not if.
The Arizona Coyotes have made defenseman Jakob Chychrun a healthy scratch for two consecutive games now for trade-related reasons, meaning they are on the home stretch of finalizing a deal.
The only question is where he ends up going.
It has been speculated that the Los Angeles Kings could be the destination, which would make an already under-the-radar Stanley Cup contender even tougher.
Chychrun has been mentioned in trade speculation for a couple of years now as the Coyotes continue on their scorched-earth rebuild where they tear the roster down to the ground.
The most attractive thing about Chychrun might be the fact he has one of the most team-friendly contracts in the entire NHL. He may not be a superstar or a No. 1 defenseman, but he is still an excellent player who brings size to a team's blue line and strong offense. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, he has scored 44 goals in 202 regular season games, which averages out to 17 goals per 82 games.
He is still only 24 years and signed for another two full seasons after this one at a salary-cap hit of only $4.6 million per season. That sort of production from a defenseman of his age is an absolute steal at that price. That cost certainty and production makes him a very valuable player.
Patrick Kane
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There was perhaps nobody more disappointed to see the New York Rangers acquire Vladimir Tarasenko than Patrick Kane. He seemed to have the Rangers as his top option, and he gave a brutally honest answer when asked his reaction to the trade.
"It's not like the happiest I've been to hear about a trade," Kane said Friday, before adding that the Rangers were a team he was paying attention to and interested in if a trade were to be made before the deadline.
But just because he did not get his top destination does not mean there is not another team out there for him.
Kane is a pending unrestricted free agent after this season, and with the Blackhawks just starting a massive organizational rebuild, there is little reason for them to keep Kane beyond the trade deadline or even consider re-signing him.
A trade is still going to be complicated.
Not only do they need to find a team that can handle the remainder of his $10 million contract, but Kane also holds all of the cards in where he lands given his full no-trade clause. He can veto anything he does not like.
Toronto is a potential option, or perhaps even a return to his hometown of Buffalo as the Sabres try to make a serious playoff push for the first time in more than a decade.
The other issue at play here is the fact that Kane has been battling a hip injury all year and is not anywhere near as productive as he has been in recent years. Add in his negative defensive value and the return might not be as much as Blackhawks fans might have originally hoped.
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Ryan O'Reilly
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Now that Tarasenko is gone, that should set the stage for Ryan O'Reilly to follow him out of St. Louis.
The Blues' season has been one of the biggest disappointments in the entire NHL, and with O'Reilly now getting into his mid-30s and the team quickly falling out of playoff contention, a trade seems to be the logical conclusion here.
Even though O'Reilly is having one of the worst seasons of his career, he figures to still be an attractive player on the open market because he is exactly what NHL general managers love this time of year.
He is a center, he has a sensational reputation as a defensive player (he has already won the Selke Trophy one time and consistently is a top-10 finisher in the voting) and he has a championship resume with a Stanley Cup ring and a Conn Smythe Trophy. Teams will look past the most recent decline and buy-in on the resume.
If the Blues were able to get a first-round pick and a prospect for Tarasenko, they should be able to get a similar return for O'Reilly.
He might be a great option for a center-needy playoff team like Minnesota, Seattle or Pittsburgh.
Vladislav Gavrikov
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Every year there is a random, underwhelming defenseman who NHL general managers lose their minds over near the trade deadline and surrender a first-round draft pick for.
In recent years it has been David Savard and Ben Chiarot.
This year it might be Columbus Blue Jackets defender Vladislav Gavrikov.
And he checks every box for that to happen.
He has size (listed at 6'3", 222 pounds), is a pending unrestricted free agent on a bad team with an affordable contract ($2.8 million against the salary cap this season) and probably has a better reputation for his defensive play than he will actually provide. Add in the fact that he has some ability offensively (with a 30-point season under his belt as recently as a year ago) and you might have a shocking candidate for a bidding war. Especially in what might be a thin defensive market for rentals.
Columbus is one of the league's worst teams and is not going anywhere this season, so its management would be out of its mind to not drum up as much interest as it can and sell him off to the highest bidder.
Jonathan Toews
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There does not seem to be as much trade speculation around Jonathan Toews as there is around Kane, but he is in a nearly identical situation.
He is a pending unrestricted free agent after this season, well beyond his prime, and playing for a Chicago team that has zero reason to re-sign him after this season.
Nor should there be any reason for Toews to want to re-sign with Chicago.
But like Kane, Toews carries a $10 million salary-cap hit, can dictate where he goes given his no-trade protections and is not really the difference-maker he was at his peak when he was helping Chicago win Stanley Cups.
Unlike Kane, he plays a premium defensive position (center) and brings far more to the table than just his offense. Toews is still a very good defensive player and is one of the league's top face-off men, two traits that general managers will highly covet at the trade deadline. Because of that, there is the possibility that Toews might actually be able to command a higher return for the Blackhawks.
The Colorado Avalanche seem like the most sensible option here because they have a need for another center, and Toews will almost certainly want to go to a team that has a serious chance to win this season.
John Klingberg
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The John Klingberg saga has been fascinating to watch over the past year.
He entered the offseason as the top defenseman available on the free-agent market, surprisingly did not get signed in the initial wave of signings, and then took a chance by betting on himself with a one-year, $7 million deal in Anaheim.
That bet has not exactly gone as anybody planned.
The Ducks have had one of the worst seasons in the league, Klingberg has badly struggled at both ends of the ice, and now everybody is left looking around wondering what to do next.
There was always the possibility that Anaheim would be in this position, looking to try and flip Klingberg at the trade deadline, but management was probably hoping he was able to rebuild his value a little more than he has.
His offensive production is still fine, but a quite a ways below what we saw from him at his peak in Dallas. He used to be a 55-60 point player from the back end, but he is only on pace for 36 points this season. He has also had a tough year defensively.
Perhaps getting him on to a better team with more offensive talent around him can help boost that offense back up. It is a relatively thin year for defenseman—especially rentals—on the trade block, so the Ducks should be able to find a trade partner, it just might not be a huge price.
James van Riemsdyk
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The Philadelphia Flyers have at least somewhat started to acknowledge that they are going through a retooling phase, and that should make them sellers at the trade deadline.
If the Flyers really wanted to get bold, they would be making players like Travis Konecny or Carter Hart available, but doing so would require the organization slamming the reset button and giving up on the next few years.
They might not be at that point just yet.
But they should certainly be shopping James van Riemsdyk and his expiring contract.
His salary cap hit is pricey ($7 million this season) and he is in his mid-30s—well past his offensive peak—but he still has some finishing touch and can put the puck in the net. He is coming off a 24-goal season a year ago, and with nine goals in 35 games this season entering play on Tuesday, he would be on a 22-goal pace over 82 games.
He is not somebody who is going to strike fear in the eyes of opponents, but if the Flyers retain some salary, they should be able to get a second-round pick or prospect in a deal for him. And a playoff team that needs some complementary scoring could certainly do a lot worse than him as a rental.
Shayne Gostisbehere
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The Arizona Coyotes handled the Shayne Gostisbehere situation about as perfectly as possible.
They gained a couple of draft picks from the Philadelphia Flyers to take on the remainder of his contract prior to the 2021-22 season and then boosted his trade value back up so they can trade him for even more assets as part of their rebuild.
The only problem in the short term? He is injured.
When he went down with an upper-body injury in late January, the Coyotes said it would be a four-to-six-week time frame, which should put him back in the lineup for the stretch run of the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He is not going to be somebody who you build your defense around and count on to play 24 minutes a night, but in a sheltered role in which he can focus on offense and play to his strengths, he still has a lot to offer.
The Coyotes did exactly that to lift his trade value back up by loading him up with power play time and giving him offensive starts. The result has been one of the top-scoring defenders in the league for the past two years.
Since joining Arizona, his 80 points are 21st among all defensemen, while his 29 power play points are 20th. He still has a manageable salary cap hit of $4.5 million and should not cost more than a second-round draft pick or prospect.
Any team willing to gamble on his health can get a very useful player.
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