The Avalanche and Oilers are among the teams that have expressed interest in Ducks forward Adam Henrique ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said Monday. Now on an expiring deal with a $5.825MM cap hit, the 34-year-old Henrique is nearly guaranteed to be moved in the coming days after receiving strong interest from contenders going back months.
Both teams have 2024 first-round picks to dangle for Henrique, and Edmonton has made it known theirs is on the table. However, it appears they’re more likely to leverage that asset for a defenseman – meaning, speculatively, that their offer for Henrique revolves around a high-end prospect, not a pick.
Henrique would immediately slot into a second-line role for either team, although he’d more likely be utilized as a center in Colorado. He, along with Valeri Nichushkin, would anchor the Avs’ second line behind their top unit of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. That’s not considering the potential return of captain Gabriel Landeskog from back-to-back knee surgeries during the postseason, which could give them an absolutely dominant two-way trio of Henrique, Lehkonen and Nichushkin backing up their stars.
The Ducks are expected to retain 50% of Henrique’s salary in a potential deal, bringing his cap hit down to $2.91MM. Colorado and Edmonton would need to carry a third party into trade talks to retain an additional 25% of his salary to remain cap-compliant. The Avs have $2.23MM in projected deadline space, while the Oilers have $2.37MM with an artificially small 21-player roster. At a 75% discount, Henrique would cost $1.46MM against the cap.
For Edmonton, Henrique would help stabilize a second line alongside Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at center. He also helps shelter Evander Kane on the opposite wing, whose possession impacts have been considerably worse than his linemates.
Henrique is among the Ducks’ scoring leaders with 18 goals, 24 assists and 42 points in 60 games. In addition to logging 17:35 per game and winning 53% of his draws, Henrique has some of the better possession stats on the team, boasting a 48.2 CF% at even strength. The Brantford, Ontario, native reached the Stanley Cup Final as a rookie with the Devils in 2012 and earned Selke Trophy votes in 2013 and 2016.
How is Henrique among Oilers scoring leaders when he still plays for Anaheim?. Your AI bot authors are messing up lol
Actually, I’m human and occasionally make a clerical mistake when I’m discussing three teams in an article. AI-generated content never has and never will appear on our website.
We always welcome errors in our posts being pointed out for that very reason.
Okey dokey, I was kind of joking! Nice you replied!
Would love to see Ron Francis jump in here and see if they can make a deal involving Eberle and Schultz with Edmonton.
If they can snag that first rounder and a prospect I like what you’re cookin. Really grown to like Schultz but it seems like he has to move on. Maybe get Cale fleury on that 3rd pairing… buuut maybe they wanna sign Schultz for one more year with dumo? I digress. I like your idea though.
Henrique has been Anaheim’s best player this season, Love to see him and Gudas in Dallas.
Gudas is not going anywhere my friend. He’s easily been the best Duck defender this season and is a great mentor for all the young D-men coming. Excellent signing by the Beeker.
Thank you for the update Josh. I’ve been following this potential trade for a while now and this is the first little bit of information that actually makes sense. Most of the stuff I’ve been reading has an East Coast slant and is completely out of the water. Seems like the writers for Toronto, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston over-hype every possibility. Nice to have a calm, reasonable voice once in a while.