Who Could The Penguins Target Before The Trade Deadline?
The Penguins appeared to fall back to earth in December after a strong start had them in playoff contention. A ten-game stretch dropped Pittsburgh to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. However, since the Christmas break, the Penguins have been on a tear, going 14-3-3 and climbing to second place in the Metropolitan Division.
No one expected Pittsburgh to be in this spot, but that’s where they are, and it is likely changing general manager Kyle Dubas’ long-term plans. Pittsburgh was expecting to sell at the trade deadline, but now there is talk of potential additions, as Josh Yohe writes in The Athletic.
But what exactly would the Penguins add? The truth is that Dubas probably isn’t looking for short-term answers and isn’t going to give up previous picks and prospects for rentals.
He might send out a late-round pick for a player or two, but his big moves, if he makes them, will not be short-sighted. So, given that he is armed with a ton of cap space and a plethora of draft picks in the subsequent three drafts, who could Dubas target?
Some people might see a player like Blues forward Jordan Kyrou as a fit, but Pittsburgh’s GM has a type. For the past two years, it’s been clear he’s targeting high-ceiling, (mostly) young players who have fallen on hard times, need an opportunity to showcase their skills, and come at a discount.
Egor Chinakhov, Arturs Silovs, Philip Tomasino, Cody Glass, and Stuart Skinner were part of a couple of trades Dubas made to acquire young talent with a ton of upside. Most of those moves have worked out, with Tomasino being the exception.
Then there is the free agency market, where Dubas’s work is very impressive. Justin Brazeau, Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Shea, and Anthony Mantha were all brought in for a song. Now, they are all contributing significant minutes in key roles for Pittsburgh, and the team is reaping the benefits.
Kyrou could be considered a fit, but given the price tag and the money he is owed, it doesn’t feel like a Dubas target heading into the trade deadline. He has been burned by significant acquisitions before, both in Pittsburgh and Toronto, so he could be tepid when it comes to big-game hunting, especially if he is eyeing the Penguins’ long-term prospects. But like Kyrou, there are many players who have fallen on hard times and are available, with the upside Dubas might be looking for.
What about a Shane Wright in Seattle? Would Dubas be willing to move some of his picks and prospects to acquire the former fourth-overall pick in 2022, or even go so far as to move a player from the Penguins’ current roster?
Wright looked like he’d found his NHL footing last season, but an uneven start to this year has him on shaky ground. Seattle is putting out feelers to gauge the market for the 22-year-old.
Pittsburgh needs young, high-end talent to add to its young core of Benjamin Kindel, Sergey Murashov, Harrison Brunicke, and Rutger McGroarty. Could Wright be a fit? There is nothing to suggest Pittsburgh has interest, but given Dubas’ track record, it’s hard to ignore that there could be a fit there.
What about another top pick, Alexis Lafrenière, who is reportedly not a significant part of the New York Rangers’ retool? The former first overall pick in 2020 looked to have turned the corner two years ago, when he tallied 28 goals and 29 assists in 82 games.
However, last season was a setback offensively, and this season has been an even steeper drop. His assist numbers remain stable, but the finishing just hasn’t been there. He has a two percent drop in his shooting rate and isn’t generating the same shot volume as in 2023-24.
It’s hard to believe the Rangers would trade with the Penguins given the bad blood between the two sides, but they’ve done business before, as recently as 2024, when Pittsburgh sent forward Reilly Smith to New York for two draft picks. This would be different, though, as Lafrenière is in the first year of a seven-year, $52.15MM contract. And make no mistake, that contract could be a barrier to the Rangers moving him, although with a rising cap, it could be worth taking on, given Lafrenière’s potential.
At 24 years of age, Lafrenière has yet to live up to the billing that made him a first-overall pick. He was touted as an offensive wizard, drawing comparisons to another former first-overall pick, Sidney Crosby.
Now, in his sixth NHL season, it doesn’t appear he will morph into an offensive wizard anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t value to be had. Lafrenière could be a good long-term option to play on the wing with Kindel in Pittsburgh’s top six.
Lafrenière is a smart player. Like Kindel, he has a high hockey IQ and is an excellent passer who handles the puck well. There could be a match there if the Penguins are looking for younger players who have underperformed.
Given Dubas’s previous connection in Toronto, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t be interested in right winger Nicholas Robertson, a pending RFA next summer who has been on the trade block for what feels like forever.
Robertson wanted out of Toronto 18 months ago and never got his wish. However, the Maple Leafs have moved him up the lineup this season, with varying results, thanks to the injuries the team has dealt with. Would Toronto move him now? It’s hard to say, but for the right price, anything is possible.
It’s not certain that Robertson would be a fit in Pittsburgh, as he likely wouldn’t be in their top nine. The Penguins’ fourth line of Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari and Connor Dewar has been highly effective this year, meaning there might not be a place for Robertson with the Penguins. Things could change in the summer, when the Penguins have more slots open up due to departures, but for now, it seems unlikely that they would acquire the 24-year-old forward.
At the beginning of the season, the Penguins were widely regarded as having the worst left-side defensive unit in the league. No one could have predicted the emergence of Shea and Wotherspoon, who have become solid defensive options, while Brett Kulak was still playing in Edmonton with the Oilers.
At the time, Penguins fans were discussing the possibility of acquiring Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, the 10th overall pick in 2022. Reports from Elliotte Friedman at the time indicated that Mintyukov wasn’t happy with his playing time, and Penguins fans rightly saw him as a potential solution to their defensive woes. But now, with the Penguins’ current depth, it’s hard to say whether it would be a move for Pittsburgh to make. Dubas always likes to stockpile NHL defensemen and has at least a dozen of them right now, but would he put together a 22-year-old defenseman who would be a heck of a buy-low option?
Make no mistake, Mintyukov can play and would be a great long-term option for the Penguins alongside Brunicke on the back end. This season, Mintyukov has six goals and eight assists in 48 games, buoyed by a career-high shooting percentage of 12%. Pittsburgh is being cautious about how it spends its future assets and may not want to roll the dice if the price gets too high. But if Anaheim is looking to move on from Mintyukov, the Penguins could likely put together a competitive offer for the pending UFA.
NHL Teams Continue To Avoid Roster Re-Starts
Several NHL teams have been major disappointments this season, particularly the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. While the Rangers have made it clear they intend to retool, the Canucks have refrained from labelling their plans, possibly due to ongoing roster assessments or other internal considerations. Even teams that have entered clear rebuilds have become apprehensive about fully starting over (e.g., the Calgary Flames), for various reasons. PHR had a piece last year that addressed why teams are choosing a retool over a rebuild, but this piece will focus on why teams have shied away from ever starting over.
The reluctance to start over makes sense from the team’s perspective, even if it hinders the team’s long-term prospects of becoming competitive again. The Rangers are a perfect example, having invested a pile of past development years into players such as Igor Shesterkin and Alexis Lafreniere. This is common among NHL teams, who constantly fall into the sunk-cost fallacy of continuing to throw money and time at a player, even though he will never be what they were hoping for or effective enough to justify the costs they’ve paid.
Beyond past costs, teams are also trapped by future expenses from contract extensions given to players who are not performing up to their AAV. This is something the Rangers are arguably dealing with in the cases of Shesterkin and Lafreniere, another bitter pill for management to swallow, as they are now in a position where they feel as though they are throwing both past and future years away on a player they piled so many resources into.
Those extensions were signed by Rangers general manager Chris Drury, and his fingerprints are all over this team. Drury has invested everything into his current club, from draft picks to term to cap space to his public messaging. It’s part of the reason he has recently talked of pivoting to a retool. Walking away completely from this core would signal a massive failure on his part. Even if the pieces in place probably aren’t the ones you’d want to retool around, Drury will likely keep a lot of them, because he staked his reputation on acquiring them.
GMs who build a team and then have to blow it up are essentially admitting they were wrong in their roster construction. Few NHL GMs want to do that, and most front offices would rather be a consistent disappointment than openly admit they are wrong.
And therein lies a big problem in the NHL. Executives aren’t necessarily rewarded for championships; they are rewarded for not collapsing. Making the playoffs is safe; finishing just outside the playoffs shows stability, but tearing down a roster and rebuilding it is a considerable risk, one that can cost you your job. A full-scale rebuild requires several ugly seasons. It means fans with brown paper bags on their heads attending games, and it means an impatient owner circling the offices, wondering when the team will turn the corner. Rebuilding is brutal and ugly, and it requires patience. Retooling is more manageable, quicker, and often leads to immediate, albeit tepid, results.
Retools can also sell hope, and teams can see it in a retool. Owners prefer hope to being told they have to tear down their team, and hope sells more tickets than telling fans you are going to start over. That matters more to owners: a full building over a full draft-pick ledger. A middle-of-the-pack team with designs on limping into the playoffs is easier to market than a disciplined rebuild with zero guarantees.
So, NHL teams opt for the theatre of optimism over meaningful structural change, and it’s tough to fault them given the incentives at play. One of the most famous examples of this is the Toronto Maple Leafs of the late 2000s, who were managed by Brian Burke. The management group had assembled a promising prospect pool but grew impatient in September 2009 and made the trade with Boston to acquire Phil Kessel. The rest, of course, is history: Tyler Seguin was drafted in 2010 with the Maple Leafs’ first-round pick, and defenseman Dougie Hamilton was drafted a year later with Toronto’s 2011 first-round pick. Had Toronto simply been patient, there is no telling where that iteration of the Maple Leafs would have ended up.
Front offices dread wasting years, and in the early stages of a rebuild, there will be wasted years. It’s also why teams rush rebuilds and mess them up. That is effectively what Drury did. He became impatient and made bold moves to bolster his lineup, which ultimately blew up his prospect system and, eventually, his NHL roster. The Ottawa Senators are guilty of the same thing, taking wild swings early in their rebuild on Alex DeBrincat and Jakob Chychrun. Teams trade their future away and call it supporting the core. They extend players to justify their original bet on a player (see last week’s piece on this). They shift their own goals from winning the Stanley Cup one day to simply not having to start over.
Again, it’s hard to fault GMs for doing this. The NHL’s structure used to encourage full-scale rebuilds, but now the rules discourage them. The draft lottery has made it harder to build through top picks; the salary cap floor requires acquiring veteran players; and some high draft picks take longer to develop. All of that has made the retool, or stated differently, the half-rebuild, safer. Even if the retool leads nowhere, which it often does.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a prime example of this. In the 2022-23 season, it became clear the Penguins needed to get younger, but general manager Ron Hextall doubled down on his roster, trading for veterans such as Nick Bonino, Mikael Granlund, and others. He also sent Brock McGinn, Kasperi Kapanen, and Teddy Blueger out the door. It was a clear case of doing something now to change the furniture, hoping it would improve. It failed miserably. Hextall had stood still for most of his tenure in Pittsburgh, and while his flurry of moves that year showed urgency, he accomplished nothing and was fired at the end of the season.
The complex reality in the NHL is that teams can’t rebuild under current management, not in any meaningful way, because it would expose all of management’s mistakes. Bad drafting, poor development, bad signings, cultural rot in the dressing room, the list goes on. Starting over requires a top-down reset, from the president of hockey ops and general manager on down to the players, and most teams can’t stomach that kind of carnage or don’t have the humility to admit things aren’t working. This is why teams don’t rebuild until it’s five years too late, and the only choice they have is to start over and wait five to seven years for results.
The Maple Leafs are currently at that point. They can retool around Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly, or they could begin the painful teardown and build a whole new culture in Toronto. Given the incentives at play, it’s hard to believe they would choose the latter over the former, even if it might be the better choice for the franchise long term.
2026 Trade Deadline Primer Series
Pro Hockey Rumors continues to contribute to its wealth of free-to-view original content with our yearly Trade Deadline Primer series. In advance of the March 6 trade deadline, we look at how each of the NHL’s 32 teams may look to prioritize their roster construction coming out of the Olympic break. That could be a complete sell-off, an all-in push for the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, or something in between. This page will be updated with links to new articles as they are published.
Atlantic Division
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Toronto Maple Leafs
Metropolitan Division
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Washington Capitals
Central Division
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Utah Mammoth
- Winnipeg Jets
Pacific Division
- Anaheim Ducks
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Los Angeles Kings
- San Jose Sharks
- Seattle Kraken
- Vancouver Canucks
- Vegas Golden Knights
Travis Dermott Signs AHL PTO In Rangers Organization
The Rangers have signed free agent defenseman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout with their AHL affiliate in Hartford, the team announced. Dermott has yet to play this season after undergoing shoulder surgery last June.
He’s not more than a depth defender at this stage of his career, but Dermott is still hoping he may be able to convert a minor-league tryout into an NHL deal on a Rangers blue line that isn’t teeming with depth. He’s been fully recovered from his shoulder procedure for several months and began looking for a contract back in November. It took several months, but he’s got a pathway to one now.
A stable bottom-pairing fixture for the Maple Leafs for the first several years of his NHL career, concussion problems and various injuries have meant he’s only hit the 50-game mark once since the 2021-22 campaign. He spent that year on a two-way deal with the Coyotes and had seven points and a -14 rating in the franchise’s final season before hitting the open market once again. Dermott landed a PTO with the Oilers and converted that into a two-way deal, although he only got into 10 games before landing on waivers and being claimed by the Wild. He suited up nine times for Minnesota before being placed on waivers again, getting reclaimed by Edmonton, and being sent outright to AHL Bakersfield to finish the season.
In 19 games between the Oilers and Wild last year, Dermott did not record a point and only controlled 46.9% of shot attempts at 5-on-5, including a relative figure of -3.0%. His possession numbers were above-average in his small sample with Minnesota, but that wasn’t enough to keep him in the NHL with the Oilers after they got him back in the organization. He played just three games for Bakersfield, recording one goal and a +3 rating, before the shoulder injury rendered him unavailable.
Now 29, the 6’0″, 203-lb Dermott will be appearing in his 10th professional season when he takes the ice for Hartford. Across 348 NHL games, the lefty has 16 goals and 62 points with a +12 rating.
Trade Deadline Primer: Chicago Blackhawks
With the Olympic break now upon us, the trade deadline is less than a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We begin our look around the league with teams that have clear plans at the extremes of the standings, this time with the Blackhawks.
In the early portion of the season, it appeared there could be some intrigue regarding the Blackhawks’ plans at the trade deadline later in the year. First-year head coach Jeff Blashill had the team punching above their weight, lingering in the Western Conference’s playoff race, and looking far less like the obvious seller most observers would have expected them to be once the calendar flipped to March. But Chicago wasn’t able to sustain the winning pace it kept up for the beginning of the year, and now finds itself back in a familiar position: well outside the playoff race and overwhelmingly likely to enter trade deadline season as firm sellers.
Record
22-26-9 (6th in the NHL’s Central Division)
Deadline Status
Sellers
Deadline Cap Space
$63.04MM on deadline day, 1/3 retention slots used, 41/50 contracts used per PuckPedia.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2026: CHI 1st, FLA 1st (Top-10 Protected), CHI 2nd, NYI 2nd, TOR 2nd, CHI 3rd, OTT 4th, CHI 7th, FLA 7th
2027: CHI 1st, CHI 2nd, VAN 2nd, CHI 3rd, CHI 4th, CHI 6th, CHI 7th
Trade Chips
While the Blackhawks in prior years have listened to offers on veteran players without much consideration to contract status, the team is now in a different stage of its rebuilding process. The team may have once been interested in how it could use any veteran asset to help contribute to its stockpile of draft picks and prospects, it does not make as much sense for the club to do that now. Veterans with multiple years of team control remaining, such as Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ryan Donato, for example, each play a role in supporting the team’s young players in the lineup, and retaining those players would help the Blackhawks’ rebuild propel forward in a variety of different ways.
As a result, it’s likely that Chicago’s selling at the deadline will be more concentrated on its pending UFAs, the players who are unlikely to be retained by the team beyond 2025-26. Among pending UFAs, the Blackhawks have several veteran players likely to attract interest from contending teams. 
In what is widely expected to be a thin market for centers, Jason Dickinson could be among the top options for a team looking to add a bottom-six pivot.
While his days of scoring 22 goals, as he did in 2023-24, may be over, he remains a fixture on Chicago’s penalty kill, wins nearly half of his draws, and has even received Selke Trophy votes during his time in Chicago.
His $4.25MM cap hit is also unlikely to be too prohibitive for contending teams to be able to fit into their payroll, especially if the Blackhawks elect to retain salary.
One of Chicago’s other top veteran pending UFAs, like Dickinson, plays at a premium position. 32-year-old Connor Murphy is a right-shot defenseman who has been the subject of trade rumors throughout his Blackhawks tenure, in large part due to his reliability as well as positional value. While he’s ceded a top-four role this season to other younger Blackhawks blueliners, he remains among the team’s most heavily-used defender on the penalty kill, and could be an attractive option for a team looking for a stable veteran defensive defenseman. Murphy has a 10-team no-trade list on his contract.
While Dickinson and Murphy are the team’s two most obvious trade candidates, and the players likely to hold the most value on the trade market, Chicago does have a few other pending UFA players who could draw interest: Captain Nick Foligno is a respected veteran leader who contending teams could be eager to add as a bottom-six forward. Veteran winger Ilya Mikheyev is flirting with a second consecutive 20-goal season in Chicago, and is the team’s top penalty-killing forward. Although he has a 12-team no-trade list, he could be of great interest to contending teams.
Versatile forward Sam Lafferty has had a season to forget, but does have the ability to play center and was an in-demand bottom-six forward during his last go-around with the Blackhawks. If a team is looking to add a depth center without giving up significant assets, Lafferty could very well be a player they have interest in.
A team looking to stabilize its bottom pairing on defense, perhaps even with a veteran player who could fill in on the power play in case of injuries, could have interest in blueliner Matt Grzelcyk. The 32-year-old, who scored 40 points in 2024-25, has just 12 points in 57 games this season after joining the Blackhawks originally on a PTO. He’s unlikely to return Chicago very much in a trade, but is nonetheless a candidate to be dealt due to his experience level and pending UFA status.
Trade Needs
NHL-Ready Young Talent: The Blackhawks aren’t at the stage of their rebuild where draft picks are at their most valuable. Sure, the team could still benefit from adding more picks and prospects to its pipeline, but that is unlikely to be their most pressing interest. Chicago has picked high in the draft in each of the last four years, including inside the top-three picks of the draft in each of the last three years.
There are more than enough players on the way, and more importantly, there are already many young players on the roster in need of additional support, such as franchise face Connor Bedard, 2022 first-rounder Frank Nazar, and a wealth of other young pieces.
If the Blackhawks trade away some veterans at this deadline, their top priority in terms of return should be trying to add prospects, not picks, and especially prospects who are close to NHL-ready, players who the Blackhawks could quickly plug into their NHL lineup and assess whether they’re a fit to be part of the team’s next contending core.
Photos courtesy of Chris Jones-Imagn Images
Morning Notes: Crosby, Cossa, Carfagna
In a move that should not come as a surprise to anyone, Hockey Canada has named legendary forward Sidney Crosby its captain for the upcoming men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Team Canada’s leadership group is rounded out by Connor McDavid and Cale Makar, who will each wear an “A” on their jersey for the tournament.
This is not Crosby’s first time captaining the Canadian national team. He captained the team at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, leading Canada to a gold medal. He also wore the “C” at the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Championship, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, last year’s 4-Nations Face-Off and last year’s World Championship. He’s widely considered to be among the greatest players in Canadian history, and owns one of the country’s most iconic hockey moments – his “Golden Goal” at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Now 38 years old, it’s entirely possible this is Crosby’s final Olympic tournament, and while McDavid is his obvious successor as captain, Crosby will at least get one more run to try to lead Canada to another gold medal.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- 23-year-old Sebastian Cossa, who was the No. 15 pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, is making a real push for consideration for an NHL roster spot, writes Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen. Cossa has gone 20-4-2 with a .928 save percentage on a juggernaut Grand Rapids team, the best season of his young pro career. While offseason acquisition John Gibson has been solid as Detroit’s starter (22-12-2, .904 save percentage), the grip of veteran backup Cam Talbot on an NHL roster spot is likely less firm. In 24 games this season, Talbot, who is 38 years old, has an .892 save percentage, which ranks inside the bottom-15 in the league among netminders with at least 20 games played.
- Another young player making a push for consideration to land on his team’s NHL roster is Edmonton Oilers prospect defenseman Damien Carfagna. The 23-year-old undrafted blueliner is playing his first campaign as a professional, and has scored 13 points in 40 AHL games for the Bakersfield Condors. The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell wrote that Carfagna “appears close to NHL ready” and could see a call-up to Edmonton thanks in large part to his skating, which Mitchell called “exceptional at the AHL level.”
Trade Deadline Primer: St. Louis Blues
With the Olympic break approaching, the trade deadline is about a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We begin our look around the league with teams that have clear plans at the extremes of the standings, this time with Blues.
The Trade Deadline will mark a fork in the road for the St. Louis Blues. The 2025-26 season has not gone according to plan, with the Blues sat last in the NHL Central Division and battling for last in both goals scored and goals allowed. Even with the bright spots of a solid blue-line and well-performing youngsters, the Blues have struggled to manage anything inspiring, sticking the team with the question of whether to replace or rebuild. The question will carry more weight than usual, as the answer will not only define the next few seasons, but also the first years of Alexander Steen‘s reign as the Blues’ general manager set to begin next season. With that change in sights, St. Louis will begin to blaze their trail this March.
Record
20-28-9 (8th in NHL Central Division)
Deadline Status
Sellers
Deadline Cap Space
$20.52MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 48/50 contracts used per PuckPedia.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2026: STL 1st, STL 3rd, STL 4th, DAL 4th, STL 5th, PIT 5th, STL 6th, STL 7th
2027: STL 1st, STL 3rd, STL 4th, ANA 4th, STL 5th, STL 6th, STL 7th
Trade Chips
With a potential seller’s market ahead, many of the trade rumors swirling around the Blues have focused on their top-line veterans. Franchise center Robert Thomas has become a popular name, as teams wonder if the 26 year old’s prime will be wasted on a Blues team years away from Stanley Cup contention. Thomas is a top-end playmaker who posted 60 assists in each of the last two seasons. He continues to lead the Blues in points-per-game this season, with 33 points in 42 games.
But moving Thomas would represent a monumental shift for the Blues franchise – and leave them with a future search for a replacement first-line center. The team would be less scathed by moving scoring-winger Jordan Kyrou, who ranks second on the team in points-per-game with 32 points in 47 games. Kyrou offers an explosive bit of tempo and play-driving that could entice needs in need of a boost on offense, while not dragging down the Blues’ future structure. The same can be said for Pavel Buchnevich – third in points-per-game – who has been on-and-off the trade block through the last few seasons.
The Blues’ price on all three of their high-scorers is said to be sky-high – seen as the price to pay for breaking up the lineup, in addition to buying star talent. Costs might be a bit cheaper on the Blues’ veterans who have dwindled in impact. Defenseman Justin Faulk has continued to stand up to a nightly, number-one role with 11 goals and 30 points in 57 games. But at the age of 33, Faulk is a hard name to bet on through the next few seasons. The same goes for former Stanley Cup legend Jordan Binnington, who has posted a dismal .864 save percentage in 32 games this season. A change of scenery could bring the best out of either player, while only costing a few future assets.
Trade Needs
Young Potential: No matter if their goal is to compete in one year or five years, the Blues’ sights will be firmly on the future. Their new era is beginning to come into focus, built on the backs of budding potential like Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg, and Joel Hofer. But, even with a likely top-five pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, St. Louis seems to lack a game-breaker to lead them into their new era. Finding that talent on the trade market could be enough to swing Thomas or Kyrou away from the only NHL club they’ve ever played for. For St. Louis, trade talks should begin with the other team’s top prospects and draft capital. Landing a hopeful star like centers Michael Hage and Shane Wright, or goalie Jesper Wallstedt, would give the Blues lineup pieces to build around over the next few seasons. It would also take the weight off of the shoulders of Dvorsky, or a future draft pick, to try and carry the team through quiet years ahead. It seems clear that, no matter how the chips fall at the Deadline, the Blues’ priority will be building up for what’s to come.
A Massive Return: St. Louis is approaching the Spring with more on the trade block than they’ve had in many years. Their focus will be on building up the first few years of Steen’s reign, though more than that, the team feels on the precipous of a blockbuster deal. How high will the bidding war ride for a player like Thomas or Kyrou, two stars in their prime who would undoubtedly bring tough-to-find value to any new destination. Could the Blues land multiple star prospects to join an already-loaded pool? Or could they stock their cupboard of draft picks full. More than that, how will the heat of trades impact a St. Louis club that also has Brayden Schenn, Cam Fowler, Colton Parayko, and Pius Suter eyeing the tail-end of their careers? Even with an existing foundation for the future, now could be the Blues best chance to go full scorched-earth and tear down their existing structure – in the name of giving Steen plenty of firepower to build the team he wants to see through the rest of the 2020s.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images.
Kings’ Surplus At Forward Could Make Warren Foegele Expendable
The Los Angeles Kings could stick around the trade market when the NHL returns from their three-week break for the Winter Olympics. General manager Ken Holland joined TNT Sports’ NHL Game Break to breakdown the team’s acquisition of star winger Artemi Panarin, and referenced the team’s wealth of forwards with their latest addition. Specifically, Holland pointed out forward Warren Foegele as a player who they’ll “work the phones” around after a strong year last season turned into healthy scratches this season.
Foegele had a career-year in his first season with the Kings. He appeared in all 82 games and reached 24 goals, 46 points, and a plus-36 – all new career-highs for the 28-year-old winger. That performance came after Foegele reached 20 goals and 41 points in all 82 games of the dmonton Oilers’ 2023-24 season. He appeared to have reached another level, but his hot hand has gone cold to start the season. Foegele remains a utility, two-way winger when he’s in the lineup but has only posted eight points and a minus-five in 43 games this season.
With another forward in the depth chart, Foegele could become an interesting trade chip. He has proven an ability to provide an impact through a change of teams and could be enough to swing Los Angeles a mid-round draft pick that they can package in a bigger market buy.
Snapshots: Flyers, Curran, Rifai
Flyers executives have said before that the team will ultimately decide whether they buy or sell heading into next month’s trade deadline. Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer examines their situation, suggesting that while they might not want to throw in the towel on the season just yet, selling is the logical route for them to take. Philadelphia sits eight points out of a playoff spot with a team in the bottom ten in offense so the odds of a successful playoff push are low. On the other hand, their list of pending unrestricted free agents isn’t exactly the most appealing, headlined by veteran wingers Carl Grundstrom and Nicolas Deslauriers. Accordingly, even if they do opt to sell, it could be a fairly quiet deadline unless they want to move players signed beyond the upcoming season.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Avalanche prospect Max Curran will make the move to the NCAA next season. The forward announced on his Instagram page earlier this week that he will play at UMass in 2026-27. Curran was a fifth-round pick by Colorado back in 2024, going 161st overall. This season, the 19-year-old has 14 goals and 27 assists in 31 games with WHL Edmonton. Had he not made the move, Colorado would have needed to have either signed him or dropped his rights by June 1st. Going to college will now push that timeline back, giving the Avs more time to decide his future.
- The Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate announced on Friday (Twitter link) that defenseman Marshall Rifai was returned to the Marlies. The move comes as no surprise with the Olympic break in full effect. Rifai recently returned from a preseason injury and has four assists in a dozen games in the minors. Recalled late last month, Rifai got into one game with the Maple Leafs but saw just 9:40 of playing time. The demotion will allow him to keep playing and also land Toronto some extra cap flexibility heading into next month’s trade deadline.
Strain On Top-Four Could Push Sabres To Add Defense
A three-week break for the 2026 Winter Olympics will be exactly what the Buffalo Sabres need to try and spark a reset on the blue-line. The rest will be most helpful for defenseman Michael Kesselring, who has been playing through a high-ankle sprain for much of the year per Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic. That is the same injury that has already sidelined Kesselring for 21 games, across two stints, this season.
Kesselring isn’t the only Sabres defender on the shelf. Conor Timmins remains on crutches while recoverying from a broken leg, and is targeting a return to skating when the Sabres return, per Fairburn.
The pair of injuries have pushed Jacob Bryson and Zach Metsa into competition for bottom-pair minutes, usually next to a hobbled Kesselring. But neither depth defender has stood up to big plays through their limited appearances. Bryson has scored only five points in 35 games this season – and has struggled with untimely turnovers as of late. Metsa only has two points in 26 appearances. Those quiet impacts have left the two grasping for 10 minutes of ice time a game, and put a heavy load on Buffalo’s top-four defenders.
That could make defense a priority add as the Sabres approach the Trade Deadline in an unfamiliar buyer’s position. Buffalo has pulled together a core-four on defense, led by superstar Rasmus Dahlin and hot-hand Mattias Samuelsson, and backed by Bowen Byram and Owen Power. The quartet has given the Sabres a long-awaited comfort on defense – and proved strong enough to stand up to heavy minutes. They respectively lead Sabres’ skaters in ice time per game, with Dahlin averaging 24:33 on top and Power averagng 21:40.
Adding a fifth defender to that mix would do more than give Buffalo three complete pairings. It would give them reliability on special teams. Adding another defensive stalwart could free Byram up to focus more on the power-play, taking some weight off of Dahlin who has played nearly 100 more power-play minutes than any other Sabres defender. Or, Buffalo could seek out a puck-mover, and free Power up from the role of third-string power-play defender.
Hard-hitting lefty Logan Stanley has been rumored to be a loose pick for the Winnipeg Jets. He could be a shrewd, and cost-effective, addition – capable of stepping up when the stars need a rest without getting in the way on the depth chart. A more reliable, two-way option could be San Jose Sharks defender Mario Ferraro, who has been on-and-off the trade block for many seasons. Both players would be strong partners for a fully-healthy Kesselring, offering a safety-net to prop up his play-driving.
Both Stanley and Ferraro – or, other market options like Pittsburgh’s Brett Kulak – would fit well into the Sabres’ salary books. Buffalo is expected to carry $21.24MM in cap space into the Trade Deadline. That flexibility, a fairly full cupboard of draft picks, and a strong prospect pool should be more than enough to land Buffalo an impactful bottom-pair defenseman on a seller’s market when the Deadline rolls around. A new face would slot Timmins nicely into the extra defender roll, when healthy, and bump Bryson and Metsa once rung down the depth chart.