The USA Today’s Kevin Allen is more than happy to suggest a holiday wish list for a handful of NHL teams. Allen offers advice to the follow clubs:
- New York Rangers: Allen suggests that the Rangers could snap up Dougie Hamilton from the Calgary Flames should they be willing to give up J.T. Miller. But just as quickly as he suggests it, he provides rationale as to why it might be far fetched. First, the financials wouldn’t work with Hamilton’s $5.75MM cap hit. Second, Miller is playing well with 18 points in 21 games while Hamilton has been struggling. For the deal to work, Allen believes the Rangers would have to shed another contract to either Calgary or another team in need of a defenseman (Allen suggests Kevin Klein).
- New York Islanders: The team in Brooklyn is Allen’s next focus and he suggests Evander Kane to the Isles. The losses of Kyle Okposo, Matt Martin, and Frans Nielsen coupled with the poor production from pricey free agent pickup Andrew Ladd makes Kane a reasonable target. However, Allen points out that the Isles do not have the cap room to add Kane’s bulky contract and would have to do some “juggling” in order to make it work. Allen adds that a defenseman would help out Buffalo’s cause if they were willing to talk about Kane.
- Boston Bruins: How many people have suggested Kevin Shattenkirk to Boston? Allen chimes in here as well, believing that the right handed defenseman would be the perfect addition to the blue line. Further, Allen writes that if Boston can convince Shattenkirk to re-sign with them, overpaying a bit would be well worth it.
- Montreal Canadiens: Arizona’s Martin Hanzal would be a great target for the Habs, who Allen feels could use another scorer to make a Stanley Cup run. What would it take? Allen believes a young player and a draft pick.
- Detroit Red Wings: It hasn’t been easy to fill the enormous hole that Nicklas Lidstrom left four seasons ago, and the Wings have struggled to find any solutions. Allen believes the Carolina Hurricanes could provide some help in the way of defenseman Ryan Murphy. Allen predicts that the Red Wings could trade a young forward to land him, but also sees a number of potential suitors for Murphy, namely the Colorado Avalanche, Arizona Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks.
What would st.louis want in return for shattenkurk? I would trade almost anyone if he will resign with the team
They were asking for young Top line forwards or multiple high picks for him in the offseason. I think he would resign with Boston since he said he desires to be traded to an east coast team. I hope they trade him and get some value because I can’t see the blues being able to afford to resign him.
The Rangers’ offense has been fine, why trade for Hamilton? Especially at the cost of JT Miller, who has arguably been one of their top players this year and Kevin Klein who is a solid stay-at-home defenseman. Adding Hamilton would do little to impact the team while giving up Miller will significantly hurt them.
Agreed. Trading away Miller when he’s finally put his game together makes no sense.
The Bruins defense has been better than expected & while Shattenkirk would help them, their offense might be a bigger concern right now. The Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak line is the only line that provides a consistent offensive push. That makes the Bruins easy to defend. They need more players to contribute offensively. Vatrano will help some when he comes back from injury, but the Bruins may be forced to bring in another forward if their offense doesn’t get going soon
Hanzal could be exactly what the Habs need as Plekanec is finally showing his age and may be best served to be a 3rd line defensive forward(albeit a very expensive one). Unfortunately, the Habs also need a puck moving defender on the left side as well before we can start talking about them as potential Cup contenders.
Montreal doesn’t have the cap space to even add Hanzal right now, let alone Hanzal & a puck-moving defenseman. They have just over a million in cap space. They would need to move salary out in order to add players. They are hardly the only team that has that issue though. A lot of teams will have to move contracts out to be able to improve their teams
They’ll actually have closer to $2.5 million once they trim the roster back down to 23 since they aren’t using LTIR for anyone other than Redmond. Acquiring Hanzal closer to the deadline will cost roughly $1.25-$1.5 million of deadline space, leaving enough space to acquire a defenceman, no one special just someone capable of exiting the defensive zone, the kind of guy many thought Beulieu would be but hasn’t developed as.
The Blues are keeping Kevin Shatt
The Rangers should be in on Hamilton and Shattenkirk. Won’t be JT Miller moving (that ship has sailed) but they have a number of other quality forwards who could be moved. Rangers need an offensive minded RHD to round out what is a very good team.
What other quality fowards would fetch a Hamilton/Shattenkirk type of player? As a Rangers fan, I’d rather not move Miller, Vesey, Hayes, Zibanajeid, or Kreider (and I’m not keen on trading Buchnevich). Unless we throw even more first round picks away or some other core player, I doubt the Rangers have enough to make that type of move. I doubt many teams want Girardi or Staal (although teams would probably rather have Staal than Girardi). McDonaugh, Henrik, Zucc are probably untouchables. So you’re talking Klein (who I’d also rather keep since his contract is a bargain considering the current rate for top 5 defenseman), Stepan (who you stated below also has a bad contract), Nash (small chance anyone wants his contract unless he can start scoring 30 plus goals again), Grabner (who’s been one of their best players and a bargain), and/or Pirri/Lindberg…guys who are promising but not exactly headliners. Look, I’m all for adding an offensive minded RHD, but is it really worth the price? As stated above, you’re probably talking Klein plus a core foward.
Gorton apparently agrees with me.
NY is not moving the young core – Kreider Hayes Miller Skjei Vesey etc
Stepan for Hamilton and small add
Flames wouldn’t want that terrible contract. And a 2nd pair defender like Larsson brought Taylor Hall – better up your ante. Hamilton is 5 times the player Larsson is.
Bern, haven’t you been lectured enough on the other boards? Stephan isn’t going anywhere.
Where does this guy come up with this stuff? Gorton has bad deals Slats left him with, doesn’t need anymore. Klein isn’t going anywhere and neither is any of the young core. Rangers are finally on the right track. Hopefully Gorton keeps it up.