NHL Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Ryan O'Reilly, Erik Karlsson and More

It seemed like we were set up for an electric batch of trades during the 2018 NHL draft, but various factors prevented multiple players from being moved.

The John Tavares situation looms large over the entire league, and organizations that have cap flexibility have been forced to hang on to it as the forward makes his decision. Meanwhile, teams that might otherwise be looking to trade for a center are also made to wait for Tavares' call, as he could end up signing and eliminating that need altogether.

There's a feeling that trade floodgates will open soon enough, though, and with the kinds of names being floated about this summer, July could turn out to be a wild month.

Once Tavares signs, it may be bedlam.

Erik Karlsson Sweepstakes Starting to Take Shape

Nearly every team in the NHL needs help on defense, and no general manager worth their salt would turn away a franchise player like Erik Karlsson. The cost will be staggering, but there's a good reason for that.

The 28-year-old is the rare kind of defenseman who can break games open with his skating, passing and offensive abilities. He's one of the most dynamic players in hockey, and teams that are looking to get over the championship hump should at least be kicking the tires on Karlsson.

While he remains a member of the Ottawa Senators, for now, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun recently reported that four teams have shown "varying degrees of interest" in trading for him: the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks.

It's worth noting that the Capitals have re-signed defenseman John Carlson since the Sun's report was published, so they would need to clear significant cap space.

Assuming Washington isn't going to be making a move for Karlsson, that leaves us with the three aforementioned teams and the Vegas Golden Knights as the apparent front-runners for the blueliner.

Vegas came awfully close to acquiring Karlsson at the trade deadline, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

At that juncture, they didn't have an interest in taking on Bobby Ryan's bloated contract, but Garrioch reported that the Golden Knights are willing to eat that money. However, "the Senators pushing for a bigger return because he's a franchise player" is preventing a deal from happening now.

Ryan O'Reilly Contenders Coming into Focus

The case of Ryan O'Reilly continues to get more interesting.

Eric Engels of Sportsnet reported on Tuesday that the center was nearly moved to the Montreal Canadiens at the draft. A three-way trade including the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders had been formulated, but once the picks started, things went off the rails.

New York decided to hold on to the No. 11 and No. 12 selections once it became clear that two consensus top-10 players would slide to them, thus nuking the deal.

He's due a $7.5 million bonus on July 1, which is another kink in an increasingly layered situation. Teams may want the Sabres to foot that bill before trading for O'Reilly, which would only drive up the cost of the deal even further.

There's a lot of moving pieces here, all things considered. Still, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic has been told by league sources that, along with Montreal, the Hurricanes, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers have all "shown interest" in the center.

As he noted, though: "...If nobody steps up to the level the Sabres feel is worth a trade for O'Reilly, Buffalo is fine having him at training camp. ... He's available, but the Sabres aren't desperate to trade him."

Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

L.A. Kings Could Still Land Max Pacioretty

Turns out we were really close to having a handful of massive trades go down at the draft.

We could have seen Karlsson, O'Reilly and Pacioretty all moved, which would still have the hockey world reeling from the fallout. None of those trades transpired, though, and while the Los Angeles Kings weren't able to get anything done for Pacioretty, there's reason to believe they could still be in on the scoring wing.

That's according to Bob McKenzie, who appeared on Montreal's TSN 690 on Monday. He spoke at length about the deal that almost happened, and while the segment is worth listening to in its entirety, here's the heart of the matter (h/t Chris Nichols of FRS Hockey):

"The belief is that there was a deal in place with the Los Angeles Kings for Max Pacioretty and that it didn't get done because there wasn't the ability to get a contract extension done. And obviously complicating things was that, as I understand it, the contract offer that Pacioretty got went through his agent, Pat Brisson, on Friday and by Saturday morning, Max Pacioretty had changed agents and had gone to Allan Walsh.

"So anyways, all of that aside, the deal didn't get done but apparently was close and perhaps could still be revived. You never know."

What an odd set of circumstances.

While the Kings went on to sign Ilya Kovalchuk, McKenzie doesn't believe that will prevent L.A. from seeking out other scoring wingers. He did go on to note that a lot of the pieces that would have been involved in a Pacioretty trade at the draft are no longer in place, so it's not like the Kings and Habs can simply revisit those exact conversations.

There's a lot of buzz surrounding Pacioretty—he was also going to be involved in the three-player deal that would have seen O'Reilly land in Montreal—and it seems likely he will be traded in the coming weeks, based on what we know now.