NHL Trade News

 NHL trade rumours 

Signings

Pat Maroon had resigned with Tampa Bay for a 2 year $1 Million dollar deal that starts next season. Maroon has been a productive bottom six forward for the Lightning during his time there and helped them reach back to back Stanley Cups and should be the physical depth forward that they have loved for a couple more years because he is more of lower end forwards who don’t produce much but give teams a spark given he has in 164 games with Tampa so far (20G-34A-54P) but will look to help Tampa three-peat this year.

St.Louis made a couple of signings resigning Robert Bortuzzo and Logan Brown. Robert Bortuzzo took less money then on his current deal signing a 2 year deal worth $.950 Thousand dollars. Bortuzzo is a stay at home 3rd pairing defensemen and this contract has no risk on it as is is a cheap contract for a solid defensemen and Bortuzzo will continue to be a great defensive defensemen for years to come. And Logan Brown signed a 1 year deal at the league minimum of $.750 Thousand dollars. He was acquired this past offseason from Ottawa and had a rocky start beginning in the minors but after some injuries he went to play in St.Louis and he has done good enough to constantly stay one the active roster after having (3G-3A-6P) in 17 games and is currently their 13th forward but if there are any injuries St.Louis would call on him first and he is now also signed next year.

Waivers 

Kraken claim two 

Austin Czarnik (1Y $.725 Thousand)

Dennis Cholowski (1Y $.900 Thousand)

The Keaken claimed Czarnik yesterday from the Islanders and a player who had spent a majority of his time in the AHL had a few bright spot this season posting (2G-3A-5P) in 11 games with the Islanders and with some injuries for Seattle could find a home in the Krakens bottom six and I could definitely see this as a great fit now and if they resign him maybe in the future too. And Cholowski is actually a former Kraken who was lost on Waivers earlier in the year to the Capitals but with Washington almost completely healthy no they needed to put him on Waivers. He was their expansion pick from Detroit and because he was claimed by Seattle after they put him through waivers earlier they can now put him in the minors without needing to clear waivers but I do think that if the Kraken trade Giordano before the Deadline or their is a major injury for on of their defensemen then I would see he comes up and tries to prove he is a everyday NHLer.

Rask retires

Tukka Rask has officially announced his retirement from the NHL. He had a great 15 year career in the NHL, probably going down as one of the best Bruins goaltenders of all time. He tried to come back this season after having hip surgery but only played four games and didn’t have really good stats or record and kind of looked like something was bothering him then he went on IR due to hip injury concerns and finally he just called it a career, he only ever played for the Boston Bruins and he was the back up when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, and the starter when the Bruins lost the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2019. He will always be remembered as probably one of the top three goaltenders in Bruins history and there is quite a possibility that he could wind up in the hockey Hall of Fame given how well he played in Boston so I just want to wish him the best of luck and I hope he does really well in his retirement, and the outlook for Boston in net right now is not too bad as they do have Swayman and Ullmark being their goaltending tandem for the rest of the year and possibly beyond. 

Ducharme fired, St.Louis the new interim coach

The Canadiens have fired Ducharme after they started pretty bad and they have also hired Martin St.Louis as interim Head Coach.

Minnesota to go after Giroux

This is something I haven’t heard from any other sources but just something that popped in my mind the other day and something that I could definitely see happening. Claude Giroux is one of the top pending UFA’s in the trade market this year and given Philadelphia’s bad season a lot of people think that he will be treated before the NHL trade deadline on March 21. A lot of teams have been speculated like the Colorado Avalanche or the Calgary Flames as likely destinations for him given that those two teams could definitely use some more scoring but I thought maybe the Minnesota wild would be a good fit for Giroux now he has mostly played on the wing over the last couple years in Philadelphia but when he started his career he was more of a center and what do you know the Wild actually are looking for a center who can play in the middle six so given this fact I could definitely see Minnesota going after Claude Giroux if anything to try and beat out rival Colorado for acquiring him and making their team better. Now what would a trade package look like well for the Flyers they are a team who is probably going to try and retool on the fly so they want some good players who are close to being regular NHLer‘s but I could also see them  trying to get some more prospects or picks for Giroux. The Wild have been rumoured for some time to possibly look to trade away Kevin Fiala and I could definitely see him being part of a trade package to Philadelphia even though he’s had a good year he’s a winger and they need centers, and with the way the Wild have played this year I would definitely consider trading their first round pick this year so those two could be the bases of the package but a third piece will probably have to be involved given how good Giroux is and I would consider giving up a top defensive prospect for Giroux whether it be youngster Carson Lambos, Ryan O’Rourke, Daemon Hunt, or maybe even if they were willing Calen Addison, so a trade package would have to involve Fiala, their first round pick and A top defensive prospect in my opinion to have a chance of getting Claude Giroux.

How will Vegas make the Cap work with Eichel coming back soon 

According to recent reports Jack Eichel for the Vegas Golden Knights has shedded his non-contact jersey and could be a matter of weeks away from returning. The Golden Knights currently do not have enough cap space to activate jack Eichel off of LTIR so they would have to trade someone to get enough cap space to activate him and also activate Alec Martinez who is also on LTR due to injuries. There have been plenty of names mentioned including forwards Reilly Smith, William Karlsson, Evgenii Dadonov, Mattias Janmark, defensemen Alec Martinez ans goalie Laurent Brossoit. In my opinion the best option to create cap space would be to trade Smith as he is currently having a extraordinary year for Vegas and considering he’s a pending UFA it would attract a lot of attention to add some solid scoring to a contender if they can make the money work with this $5 million cap it, I could also see Janmark being traded as he also is in the final year of his deal at an affordable $2 million cap hit and would definitely provide depth to a different contender, I could also see Dadonov being moved especially if Alec Martinez is also ready to be activated because even though Dadonov is a good forward he is easily replaceable with his current production right now and if they could trade him for basically nothing to a team with cap space I think they would absolutely do that, I don’t think they should trade William Karlsson because given the fact that they acquired Eichel to be a 1-2 punch with Karlsson would kind of negate the point of acquiring Eichel if they were to trade Karlsson, I could see Martinez being traded given the depth at defence right now I would definitely consider that a possibility given the fact he signed for $5.25 million for the next two years and this year but I would probably say that one of the forwards being traded is more likely first and I would definitely not trade Laurent Brossoit given he has been an amazing back up to Robin Lehner this season after the departure of Mark Andre Fleury in the off-season so I think that the Dadonov, Janmark and Smith would be my first trade candidates and then trade one of the other ones if you have to at all.

Anton Forsberg will be a hot commodity if Ottawa wants to trade him

Pending free agent goalie Anton Forsberg who is currently with the Ottawa Senators seems to be drawing a lot of interest around the league as a great backup goaltender. Forsberg was placed on waivers a lot late last year before finding a home in Ottawa and has since taken off with the senators putting up some pretty decent numbers as a 1B option in Ottawa pretty much being a tandem with Murray this year but he could be traded away given Ottawa’s position in the standings at the current moment. Teams who are very shaky outlooks at the goaltending position right now could try to acquire him like contenders in Pittsburgh and Edmonton or Washington and even some bottom dwelling teams who don’t really have good goaltending right now like a Buffalo or Arizona could all be interested in Anton Forsberg, but he’s not a given to be traded because the senators really do like him and have been giving him a lot of playing time this year there could be some sort of extension worked out with the senators and Forsberg to remain with Ottawa for future years to come if he really does like playing there and maybe they decided to move on from that Murray in the off-season and keeps Forsberg so I don’t think it’s a given that he will be traded though I would definitely see that he could be traded by the deadline and it will probably have to take a third or fourth round pick to get him and given the fact that he was a waiver claim last year to get a pick or a prospect out of that would be an amazing deal, but you know what would be even more amazing getting a solid backup goalie so it could go either way here but let me know what you think.