6 Players Teams Should Avoid at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline
We've already seen a couple of high-profile trades in advance of the NHL trade deadline on March 3 (Bo Horvat, Vladimir Tarasenko), and there will be more over the next two weeks as the league's contenders look to solidify their rosters.
There are a lot of good players who could be available, including San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier and Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
But there are also some who might not be worth the hype and should be avoided.
Let's take a look at some of those names.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews
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Let's just jump right in with the hottest of the takes, shall we?
Maybe in a couple of months this will look like a lousy opinion. Perhaps one of Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews will end up on a better team, with better players around him, and recapture some of his past glory and help put a Stanley Cup contender over the top.
Way wilder things have happened.
But there is a real possibility that these two former superstars have reached the well-done stage of their respective careers.
Let's start with Kane.
He is someone who theoretically should be the biggest name available right now. He recorded 92 points as recently as a year ago and has been one of the most prolific offensive players of his era.
But he is also dealing with a nagging hip injury, and that has helped turn what was already a bad defensive player into a downright awful defensive player. If you are going to be as allergic to defense as Kane is, you better be that 92-point player to make up for it.
He is simply not at that level right now.
How much would a team be willing to give up for a player like that with a $10.5 million salary-cap hit? How much is he really going to help a playoff team for the cost he might require in terms of assets?
Take those assets and look elsewhere.
It is a similar story with Toews, though maybe not to the same degree. The issue again comes down to salary-cap space and the cost it would take to acquire him. Toews is still a decent enough defensive player and strong in the faceoff circle. But his offensive game has declined significantly in recent years, and he carries the same substantial salary-cap hit as Kane.
He also has not played in weeks.
Any team with enough salary-cap space and trade assets to dangle should be looking at adding Timo Meier or another top-tier forward who can still be a game-changer.
If Chicago retains a significant portion of either player's salary, it would help make Kane or Toews more enticing, but any team that trades for them and expects to get anything close to the players they were a few years ago will be severely disappointed.
Vladislav Gavrikov
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This is a complicated one because Vladislav Gavrikov could actually be a strong addition. He is a solid defender, has some offensive upside and brings a respectable amount of mobility to the back end. He also has a pretty affordable salary cap hit ($2.8 million) for this season.
The problem is some team might give up more than it should.
The Columbus Blue Jackets clearly think they can make a deal involving Gavrikov because he is already being held out of the lineup as a trade precaution.
The team has reportedly put a significant price tag on Gavrikov—one that has produced "sticker shock" among potential buyers, according to TSN—and is looking for three assets in return. In a league in which players like David Savard and Ben Chiarot go for multiple assets, including first-round picks, there is no doubt the Blue Jackets can get a similar deal.
Is Gavrikov worth that? Could those assets be used to acquire a better player, either before the trade deadline or in the offseason?
This could be a case of a fine player for the wrong price.
John Klingberg
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If you are a general manager who is thinking of acquiring John Klingberg at the deadline, you need to ask yourself these questions.
Why would you be willing to give up assets to acquire him in a trade when you could have signed him at the cost of zero assets in free agency?
What has changed for the better in the past six months?
It is not his production, because his 20 points in 46 games puts him on track for the worst offensive performance of his career.
His defense was already showing signs of slowing down a year ago in Dallas, and that has not reversed course in Anaheim.
Perhaps being surrounded by better players on a team that is not near the bottom of the league and in a hopeless situation can resolve some of his problems.
But Klingberg was the top defenseman on the unrestricted free-agent market, and he remained unsigned for a long time. So again, why give up something now for a player you didn't want to sign in free agency when nothing about his game seems to have improved since then?
Luke Schenn
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If Vladislav Gavrikov might be the right player at the wrong price, Luke Schenn might be the wrong player at the right price.
Schenn is probably not going to command a huge return in assets.
Maybe a couple of mid-round picks? Maybe a low-level prospect? Certainly not anything that is going to dismantle a team's future or make it have any long-term regrets.
But Schenn does not move the needle much.
He is the type of defenseman general managers will love at this time of year because he is a rugged veteran with great size (6'2", 225 lbs) and plays the type of physical style teams are convinced that they need come playoff time.
But when he is on the ice, his teams tend to get pinned in their own zone while he does not help generate much offense. He might be fine as a sixth or seventh defenseman used sparingly, but the reality is that he will probably get too many big minutes because of his size and physical play without actually making things better.
For most playoff teams, he is probably not enough of an upgrade to justify the move.
Sean Monahan
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The Montréal Canadiens made a smart decision to acquire Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames before the 2022-23 regular season.
Their reward for taking on the remainder of his contract: a conditional first-round pick.
It was a no-risk, high-reward situation that saw them gain a valuable future asset and take a chance that Monahan could bounce back, create some additional trade value and then perhaps give them another movable asset for the trade deadline.
For the first two months of the season, it seemed like everything was going according to plan.
Monahan was off to a strong start with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in his first 25 games and looked to be an obvious trade candidate for a center-needy team.
The problem: He has been sidelined since Dec. 5 with a lower body injury, and there is still no word on when he will be back.
Even if Montréal retains some salary in a potential trade, any team acquiring him is still taking a gamble on his health and how much he will have to offer. That might be a fine gamble to take for a team that needs help in the offseason. But it is not what a Stanley Cup contender needs when it is trying to piece together a championship puzzle.
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