NHL Trade Rumors: Notable 2015 Draft and Free-Agency Buzz

All eyes are focused on the NHL this weekend with the draft taking place at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. It's the first step teams take toward winning a Stanley Cup in the future, though it also serves as a time for them to make deals. 

The NHL has already set the salary cap for next season at $71.4 million, which led to the Boston Bruins, a team with no flexibility, trading Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton for extra draft picks and financial relief. 

There figures to be a lot more moves made on Day 2 of the draft with six rounds on tap, so a lot of things are going to happen. It also paves the way for teams to start mapping out what they will be able to do in free agency. 

With so much dealing and negotiations going on behind the scenes, here are the latest trade and free-agent rumors. 

A New Home for St. Louis

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On the free-agent front, the New York Rangers and Martin St. Louis are poised to part ways after 93 games together. 

According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the 40-year-old St. Louis does not plan on retiring despite the Rangers letting him walk:

St. Louis didn't end his tenure with the Rangers on a high note, scoring just one goal in 19 playoff games, but he was a solid contributor during the regular season with 52 points in 74 games. That total was fourth most on the team in 2014-15. 

It's interesting to see the teams where there could be mutual interest—the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils. Those are two franchises on opposite sides of the spectrum. 

The Penguins would seem to be more appealing simply because they are built to win now, though they have struggled in the playoffs recently after going from the Eastern Conference Final in 2013 to losing in the second round in 2014 and first round this year. 

Adding a veteran offensive presence like St. Louis, even in the final phase of his career, could help get Pittsburgh back into the Stanley Cup title mix. 

The Devils have missed the playoffs each of the last three years and finished under .500 in 2014-15 for the first time since 2010-11. They certainly have a need for offense after scoring the third-fewest goals in the league last season. 

St. Louis may have more opportunities to contribute on a team like the Devils, but his best chance to compete for a playoff spot is with the Penguins. 

The Phil Kessel Situation

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One of the most likely trade candidates for a long time, Phil Kessel, remains stuck in limbo—otherwise known as Toronto. 

There were plenty of rumblings about Kessel leading up to the draft, most notably from Damien Cox of SportsNet.ca involving the Penguins:

Nothing came of the Kessel-to-Pittsburgh talk during the draft's first round, but that doesn't mean rumors won't resurface. There just may be a different tactic at play for the Penguins, as ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun speculated:

"

The Pittsburgh Penguins were rumored to be interested in Kessel and yes that’s true, but I think veteran general manager Jim Rutherford is going to slow play it and make the deal come to him and not the other way around. If at all. He wants a top-six winger for sure, whether that’s Kessel or Patrick Sharp or Jeff Skinner, there are lots of possibilities out there. 

"

That does leave the Maple Leafs in an unenviable position, because they gain nothing by having Kessel and the seven years left on his contract around. Yet he's still their most valuable asset as a 27-year-old who has scored at least 25 goals in five of the last six years. 

Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan told reporters (via Chris Lund of the team's official website) before the draft there has been "a lot of interest" in Kessel and other players on the roster, but nothing good enough to pull the trigger. 

Credit Shanahan for not simply moving Kessel for the sake of moving him, but this offseason shouldn't end without the Maple Leafs finding a good deal for the veteran winger. They are in full rebuilding mode and need to get salary relief as well as future assets before next season starts. 

Other Toronto Musings

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Staying on the Toronto front, because the franchise has gone all-in with a much-needed rebuilding effort, it seems willing to try anything it can to get better in the future. 

To that end, James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail reported the Maple Leafs would be willing to take another team's bad contract if it increased the return they could get:

That's an underrated strategy that gets used in other sports. NBA teams will frequently make a deal for a bad player's massive contract if it's set to expire or with the hopes of getting something better in the package. 

In Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Braves recently took on Bronson Arroyo's $9.5 million salary for this season to get right-handed pitching prospect Touki Toussaint from the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

The Maple Leafs have nothing to lose at this point. Expectations are low for the franchise, though it's finally by design, so thinking outside the box if it helps the team get better in 2016 and beyond seems to be the plan. 

One of the best things that can be said for a franchise, even a struggling one, is that there is a plan in place. Shanahan is steering Toronto in a direction that will bring it back to the days of the 1990s and early 2000s, when it made four appearances in the conference finals in 10 years.