NHL Trade Rumors: 5 Best Forwards on the Market

With one month to go until the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 27th, the buzz around the league about who will be going where will surely start to swirl. Fantasies of Cinderella runs by teams who few expected going into the season would have any hope are either being realized or squashed.

For the latter it is time for them to start to look toward to future and decide what their team will be like next season and those many more to come. Who will be a part of those future plans and who is merely taking up space and money.

For the former it is all about bracing yourself for the trying postseason. Adding the necessary depth to your squad that will ensure victory all the way to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

But for both it means moving players around and dealing a player here and there.

Here are five forwards who we could see on the move over the next 30 days.

Matt Moulson

The lowly New York Islanders are not making any great runs to the playoffs despite knocking off Detroit, Washington and Philadelphia twice this month. They still are a team with a mix of some great players, raw talent and no identity other than as the whipping boys for the crew at MSG.

For some time now, the Isles front office has called this been asking fans to be patient as this young squad matures into the promised players they can be. With John Tavares signing a new contract this past September that will keep him in the Island until 2018—he is the future of the club.

While Matt Moulson has been excellent this season leading the team in goals, plus/minus and shooting percentage (22, plus-nine and 16.7 percent respectively) he is also 28 years old and is the approaching the end of his contract.

The Isles would be best suited to ship him out for some draft picks or young prospects, to surround Tavares and the other youngsters like Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo for a run in two or three years.

Possible locations include Boston as the Bruins are reported to be interested in adding depth to their already league leading attack.

Jeff Carter

Averaging close to a point per game in his last three seasons with Philadelphia, Carter has dropped off sharply with only 17 in 30 games for what can only be seen as an injury ravaged season.  However, many still consider him a premier forward in the league.

Columbus got Carter in a deal that was expected to be a building block for the hapless Blue Jackets, a solid foundation on which to begin to construct a squad that can compete with the best of the lot. Instead it turned out to be one of the worst deals in the clubs history, considering the enormity of Carter’s contract they took on.

Carter has a lifetime deal that has him making him on average over $5.5 million a season until 2022, when he will be into his late 30’s. It also has some very tight no-trade clauses that make it even more difficult to maneuver. If you add in the fact that he has been deemed injury prone, you have one of the riskiest deals in the league.

Columbus is not only attempting the rid themselves of the burden but have been openly shopping him around.

Darren Dreger reports the Blue Jackets are eager to unload the forward after a single season, potentially to the Toronto Maple Leafs. But nothing has been confirmed and odds are the enormity of such a deal will keep him in Columbus for the foreseeable future.

Howvever, if some team were willing to take it on, it could be a just the push that mid-level team needs to put them over the top and amongst the elite.

Teemu Selänne

The Finnish forward is in the last year of his contract and at age 41 can really only expect year-to-year deals from here on out. He still gets the job done however, leading the Anaheim Ducks in points and assists going into the weekend.

The prospect for trading stems from the very obvious realization that the Ducks have very little chance of making the playoffs this season. But perhaps it also comes from a more romantic notion of completion to the star’s career and a rebirth of sorts for the Winnipeg Jets.

Selanne was drafted by the Jets 10th overall in the 1988 draft. In his rookie season he scored a remarkable 76 goals making him an instant fan favorite and star in the league.

Now almost 15 years removed, the Selanne’s career is coming to an end and the Jets franchise has been reestablished. It seems fitting the two should meet up again.

Ducks general manager Bob Murray has dismissed the notion that Selanne is leaving, but there is still enough time for their star to request the move himself. Murray would be cold hearted to deny a great player the ability to end his career on the note he would like.

Not to mention the Jets are only five points out of a playoff spot and the addition of a veteran forward would not only help their mediocre offense but give some experience that could help them make the late push into the postseason.

Ales Hemsky

Hemsky has not had an incredible season, but has still managed to get the job done. Plagued by injuries and illness, he has been forced to miss over 10 games. However, he still has an acceptable 19 points on the season and 15 assists.

Considering Hemsky has been dropped to the second line, these figures are not all that bad on a team that has the sixth worse offense in the league. The fact that he has managed to find someone 15 times to feed the puck to is mark on his ability.

Hemsky’s contract expires this season and on a team that needs a fair share of pieces to begin to rebuild, Hemsky would be best used as a bargaining chip for the future.

Many teams have been rumored to be interested in the winger, mostly title contenders such as the Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks.

Any of these destinations would be a fair place for Hemsky to land, but Pittsburgh seems the most fitting. He is not going to replace the injured Sidney Crosby by any means, but could provide the support they need in terms of playmaking in their captain’s absence.

A departure for Hemsky will not raise alarms across the league right away, but he could prove to be the unsung missing piece to some contenders triumph.

PA Parenteau

As I already stated, the Islanders are a team in transition. They cannot afford to have players who will be aging and locked up in contracts when their young prospects are in their primes. PA Parenteau is one of these players who would fit the former.

At age 28, Parenteau has only had one full season in the league, last year when the Islanders acquired him from the New York Rangers.

In that first season he put up a decent 53 points on 20 goals and 33 assists. He has continued that form into this season, where in 48 games he already had 43 points and fifth in the league in assists with 33.

Similar to Hemsky, Pittsburgh would be an ideal fit for the winger as he has displayed an above average ability to put his teammates in goal scoring positions. The highly talented centers of the Penguins are often in need of a pure puck feeder like Parenteau.

Even Parenteau himself may escalate his game as much of his stats are based on others ability’s to find the net.