6 NHL Players on Bad Teams Who Could Help Contenders at Trade Deadline
It's the stuff that Stanley Cup dreams are made of.
A contending team looking for a final puzzle piece—a scorer, a goalie, a defender or a glue guy—pulls the trigger on a late-season transaction that ultimately puts it over the top.
It makes the days leading up to the trade deadline among the most fascinating of the NHL season.
Last year, the Tampa Bay Lightning dealt a minor leaguer and a first-round pick to the New Jersey Devils for third-line center Blake Coleman, who went on to score 13 points in 25 playoff games as the Lightning marched to the second championship in franchise history. Meanwhile, the Devils finished tied for 25th in points among 31 teams and missed the playoffs.
Though the April 12 deadline is still 61 days away, a handful of teams have begun the season with the sort of stumbles that provide fertile ground for prospecting general managers.
The B/R hockey team took a look at those early strugglers and came up with a list of their players most likely to attract interest from a would-be contender at this stage. Bigger names are certain to join their ranks as standings gaps grow wider (Taylor Hall) or internal strife gets more intense (Patrick Laine), but those are debates to be considered at a later date.
Take a look at the players we came up with at first glance, and drop a comment or two with your thoughts.
Devan Dubnyk, San Jose Sharks
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The San Jose Sharks were third from the bottom in a 31-team league last season. And after just 10 games this season, they already found themselves seventh in an eight-team West Division and four points out of the fourth and final playoff spot.
Is that deficit insurmountable? No. But by the same token, only an optimist with teal-tinged blood would be expecting a parade anytime soon.
In other words, it'll be no surprise when general manager Doug Wilson's phone begins ringing with calls about the availability of goaltender Devan Dubnyk, a three-time All-Star in the past five seasons.
Now 34, Dubnyk was a first-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2004 and has only been in San Jose since the Sharks dealt a fifth-round pick for him in October. He's allowed 11 goals across four starts and 13 in six appearances for his new team, posting a .917 save percentage while facing 156 shots.
Dubnyk is in the final season of a six-year, $26 million contract and has a multiple-team no-trade clause built in, so it would take the right suitor and perhaps the right circumstances to get him out of Northern California.
But if a team believes it's one reliable puck-stopper away from a deep run, he has to be on the radar.
Olli Maatta, Los Angeles Kings
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For teams with a big defenseman with first-round draft pedigree and significant postseason experience on their trade-deadline shopping list, the Los Angeles Kings might have a deal to offer.
Finnish blueliner Olli Maatta, whom the Pittsburgh Penguins picked 22nd overall in 2012 and won Stanley Cups with them in 2016 and 2017, finds himself in the midst of a rebuild with the Los Angeles Kings.
The Kings have prospects aplenty in the pipeline, but they aren't exactly setting the NHL on fire these days. They have only eight points in their first 11 games and are already trailing an eight-team pack in the West Division.
Maatta, a 6'2", 206-pounder who shoots from the left side, spent last season with the Chicago Blackhawks and played 74 games (regular and postseason) before a trade sent him to the West Coast in October.
He's signed through 2021-22 to a deal worth $4.08 million per season.
He managed a single point and a minus-two through his first seven games with the Kings, but as a serviceable defender and puck-mover with playoff street cred—he had 29 points in two different regular seasons with the Penguins, and has 27 points in 78 career postseason games—he still has a lot to offer in a complementary role.
Vladislav Namestnikov, Detroit Red Wings
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If you're a fan of sleepers who could be stars, Vladislav Namestnikov may be your guy.
Namestnikov was considered one of the top young European players when the Tampa Bay Lightning picked him 27th overall in 2011. He has already scored double-digit goals in five NHL seasons, topping out at 22 between the Lightning and New York Rangers in 2017-18.
But he's languishing in the competitive purgatory that is the Detroit Red Wings, with whom he landed after interim stops with the Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche. He's produced in every locale, though.
Namestnikov netted a combined 17 goals in 63 games with the Sens and Avs last season, and he has scored three times in his first 13 games this season for a Red Wings club that managed only 26 goals as a team in that stretch. He also scored four playoff goals for Colorado in 12 games in 2020.
Still just 28, Namestnikov is signed through 2021-22 on a deal with a $2 million cap hit per season. He could provide an important short-term spark to a team in need before possibly heading to the Seattle Kraken when expansion draft time comes in late July.
Tanner Pearson, Vancouver Canucks
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It's a numbers game with the Vancouver Canucks.
Canada's westernmost team is flush with young talent and should have a rosy outlook before long, but the Canucks have struggled at the start of 2020-21 in a North Division flush with competition.
At some point, the focus will turn to the future. That means deciding where to allocate resources on a roster that will have four potential unrestricted free agents and another restricted handful who will need qualifying offers for the Canucks to retain their services.
Enter Tanner Pearson.
The 28-year-old is a 6'1", 201-pound winger who will be among the UFAs after he finishes the final season of a four-year, $15 million deal. He scored 12 or more goals four times with the Los Angeles Kings through 2017-18 before subsequent trades sent him to the Pittsburgh Penguins and then to Vancouver.
He scored 30 goals in his first 88 games with the Canucks and had four more in the 2019-20 playoffs, and he's added four in his first 16 games with the team this season. He recently said he wants to stay in Vancouver for the long term, but given their other needs, it would be no surprise if the Canucks moved him to clear space.
Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
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How's this for a storyline?
One of the most consistent goalies of a generation, now a veteran relegated to platoon duty in the final year of a contract, sips from the fountain of youth and carries a new team on a deep playoff run.
If you have an Edmonton Oilers fan in your life, it may be something they have mumbled in their sleep.
The goaltender in question is 38-year-old Pekka Rinne, a Vezina Trophy winner and four-time All-Star during a 15-year run with the Nashville Predators in which he's also won 361 games and posted 58 shutouts.
Rinne is sharing the Preds' net these days with Juuse Saros, who's 13 years younger, about $3.5 million cheaper and played all four games in the team's short qualifying run following the 2019-20 season. Nashville was seventh in the eight-team Central Division through 12 games this season, so the Finnish veteran might end his stellar career playing meaningless games or riding the bench.
Would Rinne be willing to amend his no-trade clause for a chance at backstopping a playoff run elsewhere? Would he be capable of playing the sort of high-pressure minutes such a circumstance would create?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But for a team like the Oilers, chock-full of star power up front but with something resembling traffic cones manning the crease many nights, can general manager Ken Holland afford not to find out?
Derek Stepan, Ottawa Senators
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The Ottawa Senators are not a good team these days. But thanks to 2020 No. 3 overall pick Tim Stutzle and others on their way, good times may be had in Canada's capital city before too much longer.
However, Derek Stepan probably won't be a part of them.
The 30-year-old center has been an NHL regular since 2010, played in a Stanley Cup Final with the New York Rangers in 2014 and has scored as many as 22 goals in a regular season.
He spent three seasons with the Arizona Coyotes following his time in New York and arrived in Ottawa as a veteran presence following a December trade in which the Coyotes surrendered a second-round pick.
However, he scored only once in his first 12 games with the team and racked up a minus-seven goal differential while on the ice. During a recent Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported the Senators were exploring trade options for him.
Stepan is making $6.5 million on the final year of a six-year, $39 million contract this season. After 10 straight double-digit goal-scoring seasons, he could provide a nice boost for a contending team in search of a bottom-six center still capable of contributing top-six minutes in a bind.
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