NHL Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Erik Karlsson, Max Pacioretty and More

The 2018 NHL Draft didn't feature the kinds of trades that we thought might materialize, and while that made this past weekend a bit more boring than it could have been otherwise, it sets us up for another few weeks of intrigue.

If the likes of Erik Karlsson, Ryan O'Reilly and Max Pacioretty had all been traded during the draft, then most of the big names would have been cleared out of the rumor mill. That isn't what materialized—the two-day event was a real snoozer, at least on the trade front—and there are still plenty of rumblings involving a handful of high-end players as a result.

We saw a five-player swap between the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes on the second day of the draft, and Philipp Grubauer was moved to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, but those were the only deals involving NHL players that went down over the weekend.

This relative inaction leaves the door open for an interesting run-up to free agency, which opens on July 1.

Here's the latest on a few of the significant players we could see involved in trades in the coming days.

Dallas Stars Could be in "Stealth" Mode and in on Erik Karlsson

Karlsson is still easily the biggest fish in the trade-bait pond, and the Ottawa Senators appear to be doing their due diligence before possibly making a move involving the All-World defenseman.

Top-pairing blueliners aren't traded all that often, let alone elite puck movers who are capable of breaking games open with their passing, skating and vision. That's what Karlsson is, though, so the overwhelming interest in him isn't surprising.

A new team has emerged over the last several hours, though, and it's one that may surprise some people. 

Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek released an update to their 31 Thoughts Podcast on Sunday, and they spoke about this apparent sleeper in the Karlsson sweepstakes (h/t to Chris Nichols of FRSHockey.com):

"One last thing, too: Dallas, in addition to the whole Tavares thing, there's a couple of teams who think that they are—and we don't know if they'll get Tavares—but there's a couple of teams who think they are one of the stealth clubs on Karlsson—Erik. ... I've heard that they are one of the teams that's kind of looking around there."

The Stars are reportedly "believed to be in the mix," for John Tavares, according to Sean Shapiro of The Athletic. Not only that, but it sounds like they're taking a run at acquiring Karlsson as well.

What a remarkable offseason that would be for general manager Jim Nill, who's never shied away from making splashy summer moves.

Max Pacioretty Could Start Season in Montreal

Pacioretty has been involved in trade rumors for months on end now. He's made it through the trade deadline and draft and remains a member of the Montreal Canadiens, however, and TVA Sports' Renaud Lavoie reported he could begin the season with the Habs:

The L.A. Kings apparently came quite close to landing the sniper but ended up signing Ilya Kovalchuk; a player of similar ilk, but one who won't cost them anything in terms of losing assets via trade.

After months of will-they-or-won't-they, it sounds like the Canadiens are leaning towards the won't side of trading away their captain.

As Lavoie noted, there's a ton of time between now and October, but things may be simmering down on the Pacioretty trade front.

Of course, right when you think things are cooling on a particular player, that's when they get traded in the middle of July to a team no one anticipated. That should sound familiar to Canadiens fans, of all people.

Blues, Flyers and Canadiens Going For Ryan O'Reilly

A perfect example of trade talks appearing to cool only to pick right back up again is Ryan O'Reilly.

Last week, it didn't sound like the Buffalo Sabres had much interest in trading the center. General manager Jim Botterill played down the chatter while Buffalo News beat reporter Mike Harrington wrote that the Sabres "aren't shopping" the pivot, instead noting that struggling teams simply do a lot of listening.

That's fair, but it sounds like Buffalo was fed plenty of food for thought at the draft.

The St. Louis Blues, Philadelphia Flyers and Canadiens were all connected to O'Reilly over the weekend. Listening isn't equal to shopping, but at this point, that sentiment feels like semantics; simply splitting hairs while waiting for the right offer to come along.

Botterill isn't going to come right out and admit that he's super open to trading away the pivot, but there's a whole lot of smoke pluming out of Buffalo. At least enough to make us believe that O'Reilly could end up on a different team by the time October rolls around.