B/R's Ultimate 2026 NHL Trade Deadline Cheat Sheet for Every Team
It has arrived. NHL Trade Deadline week.
After weeks and months of speculation and a small handful of trades starting to get made, the March 6 NHL Trade Deadline is just days away as teams look to complete their rosters for a playoff push or position themselves for better chances next season and into the future.
Now that teams are preparing to make their moves, it is time to bring you our handy NHL Trade Deadline cheat sheet for every team in the league. Buyer? Seller? Salary cap situation? Team needs? Untouchable players? Best trade options? All of it is here.
Anaheim Ducks
1 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $11.51 million in available salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, young defenseman Pavel Mintyukov
Untouchables: Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke, Cutter Gauthier
What they need: Defense. They need defense. The Ducks have an outstanding collection of young forward talent, and they play an extremely exciting brand of hockey. But they still need to do a better job of limiting chances and goals against if they are going to secure a playoff spot and have any chance of doing anything. The ideal addition would be somebody who can help beyond this season and has term remaining on their contract. This is not a time to go all-in with rentals. But if there is a top-four defender that can help for multiple years, the Ducks should be in the market for it.
Boston Bruins
2 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $1.10 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: First-round draft picks (two in 2026 and two in 2027), Casey Mittelstadt, Pavel Zacha, Mason Lohrei
Untouchables: David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Morgan Geekie
What they need: The Bruins are in one of those tough spots going into the trade deadline. They are very much in the playoff race and have a good chance of getting in. They are also probably a step below the obvious contenders and are more than one player away from being a serious Stanley Cup team.
On the other hand, the Eastern Conference is pretty wide open and there for the taking, and they do have high-end talent in Pastrnak and McAvoy. Their needs are both short-term and long-term, as they are still lacking a true No. 1 center, need more middle-six scoring depth, and probably another top-four defenseman. In other words, there are still some big needs here. There are a lot of different directions they can go, and all of them would make some level of sense both now and in the future.
Buffalo Sabres
3 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $1.72 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Alex Tuch
Untouchables: Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Josh Doan
What they need: The playoff drought looks to be on the verge of ending, and they delivered a big message to both new general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and the NHL as a whole with an emphatic 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
The Sabres' core players are in place. Tage Thompson is a star at forward. Rasmus Dahlin is a consistent Norris Trophy contender. Josh Doan has become a key part of this thing both now and in the future. Now they still need to do a little work around the edges. Scoring depth and defensive depth are the big areas to focus on, and maybe another top-six scorer. The thing about Kekalainen is that he is not afraid to make a bold move. Keep an eye out for them. Especially as they look to excite an organization and fan base that has known nothing but losing for the past 14 seasons. They are buyers.
Calgary Flames
4 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $9.68 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman
Untouchables: First-round picks, Zayne Parekh, Matt Coronato
What they need: Young impact offensive players and anything that can help them get impact players. The Flames have been one of the NHL's worst offensive teams for a few years now, and they do not really have anybody who is close to being a star-level scorer. The good news: They have accumulated several first-round draft picks over the past few years, will have great lottery odds to land a top prospect in a top-heavy 2026 draft class, and have some big trade chips in Kadri and Coleman to land more long-term assets. They already have four first-round picks over the next two years and could probably land another if they move Nazem or Coleman before Friday.
Carolina Hurricanes
5 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $8.83 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: First-round picks, Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Untouchables: Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Seth Jarvis
What they need: Another top-six finisher. The Hurricanes once again have one of the NHL's best and deepest teams playing a relentless style of hockey that just grinds teams down. They wear you down territorially, they dominate possession, and they are tremendous defensively. The roster is full of solid, two-way players who just play a crisp, efficient game. But they could still use another big-time difference-maker to separate themselves in the later rounds of the playoffs.
With four first-round picks over the next three years and a ton of salary cap space, they should have everything they need to land another impact player somewhere on the roster. They have taken big swings at the trade deadline in each of the past two seasons, and there is no reason to believe they will not do so again this season.
Chicago Blackhawks
6 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $12.76 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Connor Murphy, Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, Ilya Mikheyev, Matt Grzelyck
Untouchables: Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, any young player
What they need: The lazy answer is "almost everything." While there is a very promising young core in place, led by third-year standout Connor Bedard, this team is still not even close to being a playoff team or a contender. Progress has been glacial in this rebuild, and they still need significant help around Bedard.
Those types of additions will be more of an offseason quest.
For now, the Blackhawks' focal point should be acquiring more future assets to address the several pending unrestricted free agents on the roster. The most significant of those is defenseman Connor Murphy, who should have some big value to a playoff team looking for a solid, steady defenseman.
Eventually, they are going to need to start landing more impact forward help to help complement Bedard. He needs a big-time winger. But again, that is probably more of an offseason task. They will certainly have the salary-cap space to go after one. They just have to actually do it and get that type of player.
Colorado Avalanche
7 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $2.37 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Future draft picks, Gavin Brindley
Untouchables: Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas
What they need: A second-line center. The Avalanche have been the best team in hockey from pretty much the start of the season, but an upgrade at the second-line center spot would be a significant addition to help put them over the top.
The problem is going to be what they have to offer and whether they have enough salary cap space to make it happen. They did open some salary cap space recently by trading defenseman Samuel Girard (with a 2028 second-round draft pick) for Brett Kulak, which makes it pretty clear they are working on some kind of addition.
Now the question is what they have to trade.
They do not have any picks in the first three rounds of the 2026 NHL Draft, while they have just five picks in the first three rounds over the next three years. Their farm system has also been really depleted in recent years due to win-now moves.
Vincent Trocheck or Nazem Kadri would be a great fit here, but can they make it work with the salary cap and put together a competitive offer in terms of assets? The lack of centers in the open market is going to drive up prices.
Columbus Blue Jackets
8 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers and sellers
Salary cap situation: $9.96 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Boone Jenner, Charlie Coyle, Mason Marchment
Untouchables: Zach Werenski, Adam Fantilli
What they need: The Blue Jackets are in something of a no-man's land right now. They have played well in recent weeks to get themselves back into the fringes of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference, but they still have a long way to go and a few teams to climb over. Realistically speaking, the playoffs seem like a long shot. But do you want to give up on the season when the playoffs are still theoretically within reach?
They could sell their pending free agents and flip some of those assets for more immediate help that might also retain some team control beyond this season.
They could sit and do nothing and see what this roster, as constructed, is capable of, and then address their needs in the offseason.
Or they could say the heck with it, put their salary cap space to use, and try to add somebody major.
An impact forward would be a big addition. They are a middle-of-the pack team offensively and only have two forwards with more than 40 points this season.
Given their salary cap situation it probably would not be a bad idea to keep an eye on them if the St. Louis Blues seriously make Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou available.
Dallas Stars
9 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $-1.52 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Future draft picks
Untouchables: Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, Thomas Harley
What they need: They have needed another right-shot defenseman for a couple of years now, and that remains true this season. But with Tyler Seguin out for the season and Mikko Rantanen also out for an extended period, that will also cause some concern for their offense.
The good news is that Rantanen should be back before the playoffs, while Seguin being out for the season could open up some much-needed salary cap space to make a move.
The Stars are a top contender and have been one of the NHL's most successful teams over the past six years, but they are still missing the championship that would validate them as one of the truly elite teams in the league. You have to figure they will be aggressively buying.
They can make the salary cap work due to Seguin's injury, but finding enough trade assets to piece together a competitive trade offer for a big-time addition will be the challenge.
Detroit Red Wings
10 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $12.78 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, goalie prospects, Marco Kasper
Untouchables: Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Simon Edvinsson
What they need: From a positional standpoint, they need a top-four defenseman and a top-six forward. Their core players (Larkin, Seider, Raymond, DeBrincat, and Edvinsson) have been outstanding this season and are the biggest reason they are in a position to make the playoffs and end their nearly decade-long drought.
The rest of the team around them has not been as good.
The core players need help.
What they really need, however, is a mindset change in the front office.
Steve Yzerman has been patient. At times, a little too patient. He even faced criticism from his captain after the 2024-25 season for not doing more at the deadline. With the team in a playoff position and clearly needing help, while also having salary cap space to play with, Yzerman needs to do something to help his core players out here. They have earned it. They deserve it. The organization deserves it. The fans deserve it. Try to win. Make a big move.
Edmonton Oilers
11 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $2,627 in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Future draft picks, Matthew Savoie, Isaac Howrd
Untouchables: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard
What they need: Everything. Take away Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and this team stinks. It is lousy. Awful. And that is not an exaggeration.
That is just basic math. When neither player is on the ice during 5-on-5 play this season, the team is outscored 36-61, with a 46.6 percent expected goals share. That is a bad lottery team. The only reason they are even in a position to make the playoffs and potentially add is that McDavid and Draisaitl are dragging them there.
This is as bad a supporting cast as they have had during their careers, and that is really saying something when you consider how bad some of these supporting casts have been over the past decade.
Forward help.
Defensive help.
A goalie, even after trading for Tristan Jarry earlier this season (which has somehow made the position worse than it was at the beginning and in recent seasons).
The three biggest problems are that the guy making the trades (Stan Bowman) is also largely responsible for how bad this supporting cast is, that they have very little to actually trade, and that they have almost no salary cap flexibility.
About as bleak a situation as you could have for a playoff team. They need some creativity here.
Florida Panthers
12 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $-7 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Sergei Bobrovsky, Danill Tarasov, A.J. Greer
Untouchables: Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov
What they need: Ultimately, what they need is a fresh start with a healthy Tkachuk and Barkov from the very beginning.
They will get that next season.
They also need better goaltending, which has been a significant problem all season. But they are not really in a position to try to trade for that to try to salvage this season. Sunday's loss to the New York Islanders seemed like a potential knockout punch on this season, and the best course of action might be just to see if either goalie (both of whom are pending unrestricted free agents) has any value on the trade market, get through this season, and start fresh next year when everybody is healthy.
They do not need to make major changes.
They also are in no position to buy.
Sometimes the season just does not go your way. This is one of those seasons.
Los Angeles Kings
13 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $3.2 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft pick, Alex Laferriere
Untouchables: Anze Kopitar, Quinton Byfield
What they need: They need to hop into Dr. Emmett Brown's DeLorean and go back to the summer and rethink the hiring of Ken Holland. Since that is not possible, they probably need to rethink their approach to the trade deadline.
They already established them as buyers with the Artemi Panarin trade and contract extension, but do they need to buy more, given where they are in the standings?
They are still much in the playoff race, just a couple of points back of the wild-card spots and a top-three spot in the Pacific Division, but they have to jump over multiple teams in both races to get there.
Holland hurt their defense in the offseason, and while the trade for Panarin will help, the injury to Kevin Fiala creates another huge hole in the offense overall. That should be their biggest focus over the next week. Is there another trade that can really help them make up that gap in the playoff race and turn them into a contender? It seems doubtful.
They hired Holland to help them finally take a step forward.
All they have done is take a big step backwards. Now they need a lot of help, but not many ways to get it.
Minnesota Wild
14 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $2.498 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Future first-round picks, Jesper Wallstedt, prospects
Untouchables: Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Quinn Hughes, Joel Eriksson Ek
What they need: The Wild filled a big need by giving Kaprizov another superstar to team up with when they acquired Hughes earlier this season. Stanley Cup-winning teams usually need a second superstar somewhere on the roster, and Hughes gives them that in a big way.
Their next order of business should be finding a second-line center upgrade.
While adding Hughes was a slam-dunk move, it did cost them a potential second-line center in Marco Rossi. That leaves a big gap in talent and production when you get beyond top center Joel Eriksson Ek.
The most obvious trade option is New York Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, especially since we now know that general manager Bill Guerin thinks very highly of him, given his spot and role on the 2026 United States Olympic team.
The Wild do not have a 2026 first-round pick, but they still have their 2027 and 2028 picks and a pretty solid prospect pool. The salary cap might be the biggest obstacle to a trade. There are, however, always ways to make that work.
Montreal Canadiens
15 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $326,000 in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Patrik Laine, prospects
Untouchables: Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, Noah Dobson
What they need: Second-line center and goaltending help.
The goaltending help is probably the most pressing need and is also going to be the hardest to acquire.
Jordan Binnington and Sergei Bobrovsky are the big names, but both players are largely responsible for their teams being in a position to sell.
Jesper Wallstedt could be available for the right price, but Minnesota is under no obligation or pressure to trade him.
Do you roll the dice on Stuart Skinner?
There are no good or obvious solutions here.
Their young core is outstanding and looks to be taking another step forward this season, but they could really use another top-six center to help create a better 1-2 punch with Suzuki.
Vincent Trocheck, Nazem Kadri, and Ryan O'Reilly could all be options if they can make the salary cap space work.
Nashville Predators
16 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $6.5 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Steven Stamkos, Ryan O'Reilly, Jonathan Marchessault, Michael Bunting, Erik Haula.
Untouchables: Young prospects, Matthew Wood
What they need: The Predators have kind of/sort of played their way back into the playoff race, and even though the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture mostly stinks, they should not be tricked into becoming buyers. This is still not a contending team, and they need to start turning the page a little bit. This group has shown over the past two years that it is a mediocre-to-below-average team with a very limited ceiling.
Nashville has a good farm system, and they can make it better while also collecting more future assets if they decide to sell at the deadline.
That does not mean it needs to be a full-scale rebuild. Some of those new assets they acquire can be used in the offseason for more immediate help. Especially with a new general manager in charge, who may have a better plan and vision than Barry Trotz has. The question is whether Trotz wants to make those moves or leave that to the new general manager this offseason.
New Jersey Devils
17 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $-3.127 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Dougie Hamilton
Untouchables: Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier
What they need: Another promising season has slipped away as the Devils find themselves near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. They already established themselves as sellers with the Ondrej Palet trade, and while they do not really have any more obvious trade candidates in the form of pending free agents, they could still be active.
Defenseman Dougie Hamilton could be on the market, and they should not hang up the phone if anybody calls regarding pretty much any player not named Hughes or Hischier. They should not make a trade just for the sake of making a trade, but given where this team has been the past two seasons, they can not really afford to have many untouchables. They should be open for business.
New York Islanders
18 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $-3.22 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks
Untouchables: Mathew Barzal, Matthew Schaefer
What they need: More scoring help. The Islanders already started to add with the trades for Ondrej Palat and Carson Soucy, and this group has done enough to get some more help before the deadline. The arrival of No. 1 overall draft pick Matthew Schaefer has changed everything -- both short-term and long-term -- and the playoffs are looking like a very real possibility.
They should not overpay for rentals at this stage of their re-tool, but they need to look for additional scoring help somewhere. They have an additional first-round pick in 2026 from Colorado, and that might be one of their best potential trade chips to use.
New York Rangers
19 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $1.98 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Vincent Trocheck, J.T. Miller, Mika Zibanejad, Jonathan Quick
Untouchables: Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox
What they need: The Rangers have made no secret about their intentions at this year's trade deadline.
They are sellers.
In fact, they have already started selling by moving Artemi Panarin and defenseman Carson Soucy. Given the letter they sent out to fans, as well as the fact that they have the worst record in the Eastern Conference. You can be sure the trades will not stop there.
Trocheck is probably the most valuable trade chip they have, and they could get a nice return for him given his two-way play and a reasonable contract that still has some years of term remaining. If they can find a taker for Miller or Zibanejad's contracts, they should be very open to it, especially when it comes to Miller.
Alexis Lafreniere could also be an interesting name, but the Rangers should give him another year to see if he can still take that star turn they have been waiting for him to take since being the top pick in the NHL Draft. The talent is there. You want him to put it all together for you, not for somebody else.
Ottawa Senators
20 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $2.78 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Claude Giroux, Lars Eller, Nick Jensen
Untouchables: Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson
What they need: The Senators are better than their record suggests, with goaltending absolutely ruining what has been a pretty good team overall. But it might be too late in the season to change that or fix it. They need to be realistic about their situation and understand that selling in the short-term might be the only logical path.
They have some pending unrestricted free agents who might have value, and they should try to determine exactly what that value is.
Philadelphia Flyers
21 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $6.86 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Rasmus Ristolainen
Untouchables: Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras
What they need: This could be a very quiet trade deadline for the Flyers. They did not take a big step forward this season, and they are still very much in the middle of their rebuild. They need more impact talent offensively, but unless somebody young, in the prime of their career, and with term remaining falls into their lap, they should wait until the offseason to pursue that sort of move.
They do not have many free agents to deal from, but defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen could have some value.
Unless something unexpected happens, this could -- and probably should -- be one of the quieter teams in the league this week.
Pittsburgh Penguins
22 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $10.54 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Stuart Skinner
Untouchables: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Ben Kindel, Sergei Murashov
What they need: The Penguins are a playoff team, and they might be a sneaky Stanley Cup contender. They enter the week with the sixth-best points percentage in the NHL, strong underlying numbers, excellent special teams, and are 2-0-1 without captain Sidney Crosby. He also could be back in the lineup sooner than expected.
Given all of that, the Penguins should be buyers, within reason. They already added defenseman Samuel Girard (and a second-round draft pick) this week in exchange for Brett Kulak, and another defensive addition could help to solidify some depth.
They could be in the market for another center if they are overly concerned about how long Crosby will be sidelined, but again, that does not seem to be a super long-term concern. They have a ton of draft pick assets to deal from over the next few years, while goalie Stuart Skinner could also be a trade option to open the door for Sergei Murashov, who has been one of the best goalies in the American Hockey League this season and is one of the best young goalie prospects in the NHL. He and Ben Kindel are the two young prospects they have with real top-tier potential at their positions.
This is a good team right now with a significantly brighter future than it looked to have just a couple of years ago. The veterans are still good, and the young talent has rapidly improved.
San Jose Sharks
23 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers and sellers
Salary cap situation: $140,377 in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Edmonton's 2026 first-round pick, Mario Ferraro, John Klingberg
Untouchables: Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Yaroslav Askarov, Sam Dickinson
What they need: The Sharks are hanging around in the playoff race and already made one move to buy, adding veteran forward Kiefer Sherwood from the Vancouver Canucks for a couple of second-round picks. It is a risky move given his status as a pending unrestricted free agent, as well as the fact that he is having a career year primarily driven by a career-high shooting percentage, but it was a nice reward for a young team that has played its way into the playoff fight.
But are they in a position to add more?
They shouldn't be in the market for more rentals, and should probably look to trade some of their own pending free agents on defense. If they are able to flip some of them for draft-pick capital, they could re-flip them for more long-term help with the term remaining. They only have two defensemen under contract for next season, making that an area to potentially address.
Seattle Kraken
24 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers and sellers
Salary cap situation: $4.827 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks, Shane Wright, Jaden Schwartz, Jordan Eberle, Eeli Tolvanen, Jamie Oleksiak
Untouchables: Matty Beniers, Berkly Catton
What they need: What do you even do here if you are Seattle management? They are in a playoff spot entering the week, but they do not do anything particularly well. They are a bland, boring offensive team. Almost all of their defensive success is due to goaltending. None of it looks totally sustainable.
Their biggest need is simply big-time offensive talent. Their best hopes for it are Shane Wright and Matty Beniers, but Wright's name has been mentioned in trade speculation. They have a bunch of pending free agents they could sell if they choose to go in that direction, but that would be a really hard thing to do for a team that has a real chance to make the playoffs.
Ever since Seattle entered the NHL, it has been in that no-man's land somewhere between the playoffs and the lottery, and they look to be stuck there again. They could buy. They could sell. They could do a little bit of both. If we are using their past moves as any sort of indicator, they will probably do so in the most boring, bland, and inconsequential way possible.
St. Louis Blues
25 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $67,866 in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Jordan Binnington, Justin Faulk
Untouchables: Jake Neighbours, Jimmy Snuggerud
What they need: The Blues seem to be on the verge of a pretty significant reset, and there seems to be a real chance that a key player like Thomas or Kyrou gets traded over the next few days.
If the Blues are going to go in that direction, they'd better be darn sure they are getting an offer that absolutely wows them.
If they were smart, they would try to use the PR boost that Jordan Binnington's Olympic performance has given him to try to dump his contract and get something for him while his value is reasonably high. At least before teams realize he has been one of the worst goalies in the league this season.
Faulk could also be an attractive trade chip given his steady play and manageable contract. The Blues are a clear seller, and given the names they have potentially available, could be one of the more interesting teams to watch this week.
Tampa Bay Lightning
26 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $-787,774 in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Not much
Untouchables: Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jake Guentzel, Victor Hedman
What they need: The Lightning are currently the best team in the Eastern Conference, and no matter what their salary cap situation is, they always seem to find a way to add somebody. Sometimes somebody significant. That is going to be a challenge this season, given the lack of salary cap space and trade assets, but you should never count them out.
Depth at both forward and defense is their two biggest needs. Do not bet against them finding a way to add one or both over the next few days.
Toronto Maple Leafs
27 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $1.099 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton, Simon Benoit, Matias Maccelli, Calle Jarnkrok, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Untouchables: Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares
What they need: If it was not already obvious to Maple Leafs management, it certainly should be, given the way they played their first three games coming out of the 2026 Olympic break. This team stinks and needs major changes.
Pending free agents like McMann, Laughton, and Jarnkrok should be aggressively shopped, while Benoit and Maccelli should be dangled to see if their remaining team control can bring back a strong return.
Toronto has completely depleted its draft pick and prospect pool in recent years, and they need to do everything in their power to start rebuilding that back up over the next few days. Even if they just acquire more picks and prospects to use as trade bait over the summer, they need to bring more assets back into the organization. Draft picks. Prospects. Young players. All of it.
Utah Mammoth
28 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $6.247 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks
Untouchables: Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther
What they need: Utah looks like it is in a strong position to make the playoffs, especially now that young star Logan Cooley is back in the lineup.
They have been an aggressive front office the past two years, and they could really use another top-six scorer. If Robert Thomas is really available, he would be an outstanding player to pursue. Even if the price is high, it would significantly raise the ceiling both now and in the future.
Vancouver Canucks
29 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $1.483 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Tyler Myers, Evander Kane, Teddy Blueger, Elias Pettersson
Untouchables: Zeev Buium
What they need: They need to stop putting off the rebuild and just commit to it. It seems like that has already happened with the Quinn Hughes trade. Now it is just a matter of how far they go with it this season. They have no shortage of trade options and could really hit the reset button if they wanted, while also positioning themselves for the best possible lottery odds for likely No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna.
The intriguing name is going to be Pettersson again. Have they given up on him returning to the 100-point player he was a couple of years ago? Or do they still think he can be a core player on the next good Canucks team? A lot of it probably also depends on how long they anticipate this rebuild will take. If they are thinking years down the line and a full-scale rebuild, they might have to take the chance and trade him even if his value might still be at a low-point compared to what it was a few years ago.
Vegas Golden Knights
30 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $-11.597 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks
Untouchables: Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone
What they need: Goaltending. They have tried four different goalies this season, and none of them have been anywhere close to good enough. That position is the single biggest reason they are in the middle of the league standings and not looking like the Stanley Cup contender they are supposed to be.
They have little in the way of trade assets, a major salary cap crunch, and the position they need the most help at has few good options. Not exactly an ideal situation for a team that loves to be aggressive and is always playing for the Stanley Cup.
Washington Capitals
31 of 32
Buyers or sellers: Buyers
Salary cap situation: $3.304 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Draft picks
Untouchables: Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson
What they need: On one hand, the Capitals are still very much in the Eastern Conference playoff race. They are also not going to give up as long as Alex Ovechkin is still on the roster. They are far more likely to buy than sell.
On the other hand, their biggest obstacle in making the playoffs is that just about every team they are chasing has multiple games in hand on them. They are six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins have three games in hand on them, while the Islanders have one game in hand on them. They are two points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot, but the Bruins have three games in hand on them. All of that could increase what they have to do, perhaps even significantly. They have almost zero margin for error the rest of the way.
They need more offensive impact, but they do not seem eager to trade any of their top young players, including forward Ryan Leonard. That certainly makes a big addition difficult. It might be a quiet week for them in terms of potential trades.
Winnipeg Jets
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Buyers or sellers: Sellers
Salary cap situation: $3.044 million in salary cap space
Best trade assets: Luke Schenn, Logan Stanley, Gustav Nyquist, Eric Comrie
Untouchables: Connor Hellebuyck, Josh Morrissey
What they need: They are finding out this season just how much they have been dependent on Hellebuyck to mask all of their flaws. Not even he has been able to do it again this season. After winning the Presidents' Trophy a year ago with the best regular-season record in the NHL, Winnipeg looks likely to miss the playoffs entirely this season. That means it is time to sell, especially as they try to restock their draft pick capital. They have no second-or fourth-round picks in the next two NHL Draft classes.
Defensemen Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley, as pending unrestricted free agents, look like the most likely players to go, as does veteran forward Gustav Nyquist. He is also a pending unrestricted free agent.
The question is whether they do anything beyond that and change something at their core. Whether that is a trade deadline-type move or an offseason-type move, it is something that definitely needs to be considered. They cannot keep relying on Hellebuyck to do everything for them. They need more than that. The expectations should be higher here. Getting there will require general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff to do something bold and be proactive, rather than reactive.
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