The Sharks aren’t expected to trade any of their young forwards for a scoring upgrade before the trade deadline, notes Paul Gackle of the Mercury News. The one exception to that is if they acquire a young core player in the trade which doesn’t seem likely to happen unless they’re willing to include other future assets in a deal. Accordingly, Gackle makes a compelling case to trade netminder Aaron Dell. The 28-year-old is having himself a strong season and while he provides an above-average insurance policy behind Martin Jones, it’s unlikely that San Jose will be able to afford to keep him around for next season with Dell hitting the open market this summer. With the young forwards off the table, Dell is the one trade chip they can use to bring in someone of consequence to help solidify their hold on a playoff spot. If they were to do so, they would presumably then have to turn around and make a follow-up move to bring in someone else to play behind Jones.
Elsewhere in the Pacific:
- Coyotes winger Anthony Duclair was a healthy scratch against Washington last night. Head coach Rick Tocchet told Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic that since he wasn’t going to be used in a top-six role, there wasn’t much point to playing him as he’s unable to handle the defensive responsibilities that players in the bottom-six are expected to do. Unfortunately for Duclair, his production so far this season (7-6-13 in 27 games with three of those goals coming in one game) hasn’t been good enough to justify consistent top-six playing time so this may continue for a little bit.
- The Canucks have scratched defenseman Ben Hutton twice over the past week but Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province argues that despite the fact his offensive game hasn’t progressed like many had hoped, Hutton is still their top option on the penalty kill. At 24, Hutton is still young enough to be considered part of their long-term future which makes the decision to sit him down for depth defender Alex Biega a bit surprising. Hutton has just four assists in 34 games but is averaging a career-high 20:50 in playing time per night.
- Although Oilers defenseman Andrej Sekera needed treatment yesterday on his recently-repaired knee following his season debut on Thursday, he will be able to suit up tonight against Montreal, reports Postmedia’s Jim Matheson. The treatment was just precautionary. After playing 16 minutes in his first game, it will be interesting to see if he gets a bigger workload tonight or if they wait until after the holiday break; he has logged more than 21 minutes per night in each of the last five seasons.
Bring the Duke back to NYR!