Kings Circling Back On Patrik Laine
The Kings were reported to have a degree of interest in Canadiens winger Patrik Laine last month after losing Kevin Fiala to a season-ending leg injury at the Olympics. Those talks quickly fizzled out, but after another rash of injuries in L.A., they’ve demonstrated renewed interest in the former 40-goal scorer, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
As things stand, the Kings’ injury list has effectively derailed their chances of making the playoffs, even after swinging a trade for Artemi Panarin last month. One of their better scoring options, Andrei Kuzmenko, had surgery to repair a torn meniscus last weekend and is effectively done for the regular season. They also recently lost Joel Armia to injured reserve and are now dealing with an upper-body injury to Quinton Byfield.
That’s a third of the Kings’ regular forwards unavailable, not including Trevor Moore, who’s currently dealing with an illness. To no surprise, they’re 1-3-0 coming out of the break while only averaging 2.25 goals per game. They fired head coach Jim Hiller on Sunday and promoted associate coach D.J. Smith as the interim head coach to finish out the year, but lost 4-2 to the Avalanche in their first game under Smith last night.
As things stand, the Kings are only four points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand, but have three teams – the Predators, Sharks, and Oilers – to leapfrog in that order – to get back into the picture. The crowded field leaves them with a 27.7% chance of making the playoffs at this stage, per MoneyPuck.
Scoring isn’t just a recent problem for the Kings, though. L.A.’s offense has clicked at just 2.52 goals per game, fourth-worst in the league. Their 16.8% success rate on the power play isn’t much better at 26th out of 32 teams. Panarin has yet to score since his acquisition, but does have three assists in four games.
Still, the situation is untenable with Fiala and Kuzmenko now out long-term. That’s led general manager Ken Holland to consider a reclamation hail-mary project like Laine, who will carry little to no acquisition cost thanks to his exorbitant $8.7MM cap hit destroying most of his trade value. The Habs, in desperate need of cap flexibility to augment their roster at the trade deadline, have been trying to move him for weeks to no avail. He hasn’t played since late October due to core muscle surgery, but has been practicing in a non-contact jersey since January, so he’s on the verge of a return and could be simply held out of the lineup for trade protection at this point.
Laine was a non-factor to start the year with one assist and a -3 rating in five games. He was nonetheless an effective secondary scoring presence in a more limited role in Montreal last season despite missing nearly 30 games with a left knee sprain. He had 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games for the Habs last year. That works out to a 0.38 goals per game figure that would currently lead the Kings.
If healthy, the pending free agent could get a long leash in the Kings’ top nine and feature on their top power-play in an effort to give them enough offense to eke out a heater over the last few weeks.
Panthers To Activate Tomas Nosek From LTIR
Panthers center Tomáš Nosek will draw into the lineup tonight against the Devils, head coach Paul Maurice told reporters, including the team’s Jameson Olive. He’ll need to come off long-term injured reserve to make his season debut, but that will be a smooth move after Luke Kunin cleared waivers yesterday and headed to AHL Charlotte, which opened up a roster spot.
Nosek, 33, was close to testing free agency last summer after initially signing with the Cats in 2024, serving as a fringe fourth-line option in their second of back-to-back Stanley Cups. On the morning of July 1, he opted to stay in South Florida on a one-year, league minimum deal. With the Panthers losing Nico Sturm in free agency, he was expected to step back in as their full-time fourth-line option down the middle. That all changed when Nosek didn’t report to training camp due to what the team called a significant offseason knee injury that required surgery, saying he would miss several months.
While several months turned into nearly the entire regular season, Nosek will get back into the fold for the stretch run before having the chance to test free agency again in July. The veteran of nearly 500 games suited up 59 times for the Cats last year, recording a goal and nine points with a +4 rating while averaging 9:49 of ice time per game.
The Czech pivot has never been anything more than a bottom-of-the-lineup piece, but is a well-respected role player who saw significant shorthanded deployment earlier in his career, particularly in his two-year run with the Bruins from 2021-23. He averages seven goals and 19 points per 82 games for his career – along with 92 hits – and is quite strong in the dot at 54.0%.
With Florida now needing a miracle to break through a crowded East wild-card race, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see Nosek flipped for a depth pick if a contender has interest. If not, he’ll be a much-needed additional veteran piece to aid an ailing Florida bottom-six group that’s without Jonah Gadjovich and Cole Schwindt.
Blues Leaning Toward Trading Jordan Binnington
This week is shaping up to be a transformative one for the Blues. Amid mounting interest for forward cornerstone Robert Thomas, they’ve also been fielding more sparse interest in starting goaltender Jordan Binnington over the last several months. That appears to be coming to a head now as NHL Network’s Brian Lawton reports they’re “ready to move on” from Binnington and that it “feels like a move is a forgone [sic] conclusion.”
That’s a sharp change in direction from the feeling surrounding Binnington as of late, which was that they were listening to offers but weren’t close to seriously considering a move. He’d been left off most trade boards or ranked rather low on them as a result. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta had him as a “bubble player” outside of his top-40 as of an update this morning. He was down at 24th on TSN’s most recent Trade Bait list and 43rd on Chris Johnston’s list for The Athletic yesterday.
In all likelihood, his and Thomas’ futures in St. Louis go hand in hand. It makes little sense for a team teetering between a moderate retool and an aggressive rebuild to move one player of either’s caliber and importance but not the other. As such, it’s natural that there would be an increased willingness to shop Binnington amid some intriguing offers for Thomas in the last few days from the Mammoth and Sabres, which has general manager Doug Armstrong seemingly leaning toward a move in that department as well.
Binnington’s trade value is hard to gauge. On one hand, he’s on a desirable contract for an established but inconsistent starter with a cap hit of $6MM that expires after next season. He’s also coming off exceptional performances as Team Canada’s starter on the international stage in back-to-back years. guiding Canada to a championship at last season’s 4 Nations Face-Off and putting up a .917 SV% in five games en route to a silver medal at last month’s Winter Olympics. He’s also a Cup champion and Calder Trophy finalist with a largely above-average track record in the playoffs.
That shouldn’t completely shroud the fact that Binnington has been the NHL’s worst starter this season, bar none. The Blues’ skater core has been below-average but not catastrophic defensively. Binnington’s .867 SV% and 8-18-6 record in 31 starts this year are more individually damning than representative of the team in front of him, especially when considering backup Joel Hofer‘s .899 SV% in a similar workload. The analytics back that up – Binnington’s -23.8 goals saved above expected are the worst in the league, per MoneyPuck.
The latter’s hot streak as of late and intriguing track record as a prospect only make moving on from Binnington a more natural position to take, especially if St. Louis has a chance to squeeze more return value out of him now with an acquiring team getting to take two swings at a playoff run with him before he reaches free agency. Hofer has another year left at $3.4MM before becoming an arbitration-eligible free agent. He’s now up to even in GSAx on the year after a rough start similar to Binnington’s and has a 14-11-3 record to show for it. That includes a .905 SV% in his last 15 outings, matching his career average to this point.
Sabres Making Aggressive Push For Robert Thomas
The Sabres are a late but aggressive entrant in talks to acquire center Robert Thomas from the Blues, reports Darren Dreger of TSN. Their offer contains multiple first-round picks or equivalent pieces, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic relays. However, talks haven’t progressed far enough yet for the Blues to ask Thomas to waive his no-trade clause, per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic.
Thomas is the best player still available at the deadline, both in terms of short-term and long-term impact. It was viewed as pure speculation by many that he’d actually be made available amid St. Louis’ retool, but the Blues have evidently received multiple offers strong enough to their liking in recent days to seriously consider pulling the trigger on a move. The Mammoth is the other club that’s been consistently tied to Thomas over the past week.
Even amid something of a down season for Thomas, it’s hard to imagine his trade value has taken much of a hit. He’s still put up 12 goals and 35 points in 42 games. That’s similar on a per-game basis to what other top options Nazem Kadri and Vincent Trocheck have done this season, but Thomas is significantly younger and has consistently been one of the league’s assist leaders for several years now.
The 26-year-old is in year three of eight on his contract, which carries a fair-value cap hit at worst of $8.125MM. He had full trade protection kick in this season – the first year he was eligible to receive it – so all of this hinges on Thomas greenlighting a move to the Sabres, who currently have an 88.6% chance of ending their playoff drought at 14 seasons, per MoneyPuck.
Buffalo doesn’t have any additional first-rounders past their own, but they do have a plethora of recent first-round draft choices to leverage in trade talks. Among forwards alone who are still on entry-level deals, there’s Zach Benson, Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund, Isak Rosen, and Konsta Helenius. Helenius, the 14th overall pick in 2024, has shown enough at the AHL level already to paint himself as a potential long-term replacement for Thomas as St. Louis’ first-line center. Whether the Sabres would be willing to leverage either Bowen Byram or Owen Power from their long list of top-four-capable left-shot defenders remains to be seen, but that shouldn’t be ruled out either if they’re looking to keep cap space open for looming extensions for Benson and Alex Tuch.
Wild Claim Robby Fabbri, Place Tyler Pitlick On Waivers
March 3: Pitlick passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman.
March 2: The Minnesota Wild have found a depth forward upgrade on the waiver wire. Minnesota has claimed St. Louis Blues winger Robby Fabbri off of waivers and, in a corresponding move, placed Tyler Pitlick on waivers to clear roster space, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Fabbri will join former Blues teammate Vladimir Tarasenko in his move to the Wild.
Fabbri signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Blues in December after beginning the year with three games and two points, with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He slotted into a fourth-line role – but routinely stepped up in the lineup – in his return to St. Louis, where he spent the first four years of his career. Fabbri racked up four points, 12 penalty minutes, and a minus-three in 15 games with the Blues before landing on waivers. His waiver designation came in conjunction with Robert Thomas‘ return from a month-long absence due to injury and personal leave.
Fabbri was a first-round pick for the Blues in 2014. He made his NHL debut two seasons later and posted what’s become a career-year right out of the gates – marked by a career-high 18 goals and 37 points in 72 games. Fabbri’s career was quickly derailed by multiple knee injuries, holding him out of over 100 games between 2016 and 2020. Despite that, Fabbri stuck in the lineup long enough to seal a Stanley Cup victory with the Blues in 2019, netting a combined seven points in 42 games between the 2018-19 regular season and playoffs.
Fabbri will rival fourth-line minutes in Minnesota. Pitlick recorded only two goals, along with 24 penalty minutes and a minus-four, in 32 games with Minnesota this season. He has also scored 11 points in 12 AHL games this season. Pitlick spent the entire 2024-25 season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. He finished the year ranked third on the team in scoring, with 46 points in 59 games. Pitlick rotated through NHL extra forward roles between 2013 and 2024 – making appearances with seven different clubs, including the Blues and Edmonton Oilers. In total, Pitlick has scored 58 goals and 111 points in 452 NHL games. He will return to a productive role in the minor leagues, if no team finds a need for his depth services in the NHL.
Kraken Sign, Reassign Gustav Olofsson
March 3: Olofsson has cleared waivers, per Friedman. The team confirmed he’s been sent back to Coachella Valley
March 2: The Seattle Kraken have continued their run of new contracts by signing defenseman Gustav Olofsson to a one-year, $775K contract. Olofsson is currently playing in the first year of a two-year, AHL contract signed with the Coachella Valley Firebirds in July 2025. This deal will bump him back up to an NHL, two-way contract – mirroring the contract details of his last deal with the Kraken: a two-year, two-way, league-minimum contract signed in 2023. Olofsson’s last NHL contract paid him $350K in minor-league salary. He will earn a bump in pay – up to $460K – in minor-league salary on this deal per PuckPedia.
With his promotion from an AHL deal to an NHL deal, the 31-year-old Olofsson will have to clear NHL waivers. He has been placed on the waiver wire per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Olofsson has served as an alternate captain with Coachella Valley for the last four seasons. Unlike in previous years, he has found a new scoring touch this season, racking up 16 points in 29 games played – third-most on the Firebirds defense behind Tyson Jugnauth and Ty Nelson. A chunk of that scoring has come over Olofsson’s last eight games, where he’s racked up five points, 10 penalty minutes, and a plus-five.
Seattle has not recalled Olofsson since the 2023-24 season. Prior to his time in Seattle, Olofsson earned extended looks in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild, including 41 games in the 2017-18 season. In total, Olofsson has racked up no goals and 11 assists in 63 games and six seasons in the NHL. His role has often been focused on the defensive side of the puck, where his long reach and big frame help close off opponents breaking into the zone. The Kraken will ensure a bit more defensive depth with this move, though it’s not likely to change Olofsson’s role in the Coachella Valley lineup for the foreseeable future.
Red Wings Place Erik Gustafsson On Waivers
March 3: Gustafsson cleared waivers, per Friedman.
March 2: The Detroit Red Wings placed veteran defenseman Erik Gustafsson on waivers today, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move paves the way for the Red Wings to open up a spot on their 23-man roster, as this waiver placement was likely made with the intent of sending the blueliner down to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
The move doesn’t come as a major surprise, as Gustafsson has been a frequent healthy scratch for the Red Wings in his most recent stint on their NHL roster. Since being recalled on Jan. 15, Gustafsson has dressed for just a single game, serving as a healthy scratch for 11 of the team’s 12 contests. 
While he did receive over 20 minutes of ice time in the game he was dressed for – a 5-0 loss to the Avalanche on Jan. 31 – it’s been clear for some time that Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan prefers to staff his defense with other players.
As a result, this has been a difficult season for the 33-year-old. A veteran of over 500 games, Gustafsson was once a 60-point scorer, an emerging offensive force from the back-end as a part of the Chicago Blackhawks in the late 2010s.
He wasn’t able to sustain that level of production for very long, though, and began bouncing around the league, offering his services as a bottom-pairing puck-moving defenseman with power play utility to various teams. He even made a few deep playoff runs in the process, winning a Clarence S. Campbell Bowl with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, and appearing in the Eastern Conference Final in 2024 as a member of the New York Rangers.
Gustafsson made the most of that Rangers tenure in particular, which is what landed him in Detroit in the first place. The Red Wings signed Gustafsson to a two-year, $2MM AAV deal on July 1, 2024 after he managed to provide New York with a significant amount of surplus value on his prior deal, having scored 31 points on just an $825K salary. He wasn’t able to bring that kind of effectiveness to Detroit, scoring just 18 points in 60 games.
So far in 2025-26, he’s fallen further down Detroit’s depth chart. He’s been a staple in the press box when on the NHL roster, and has just two NHL games played this season. He’s been productive in the AHL, scoring 20 points in 22 games, but those are also his first AHL games since the 2017-18 season.
Today’s news comes at a crucial point in Gustafsson’s career. As a pending UFA, he’s undoubtedly hoping to be able to enter the offseason player market on as strong footing as possible. The longer he spends as a healthy scratch and/or AHL player as a member of the Red Wings organization, the lower his chances are of getting a contract anywhere close to the $2MM salary he received in his last run as a UFA.
With the player movement expected to come in the lead up to this week’s trade deadline, it’s possible a spot frees up on another team that would allow Gustafsson to play out the rest of the season at the NHL level. But seeing as his waiver placement is coming before that movement is finalized, it’s fair to question whether teams will be willing to place a claim on Gustafsson, given that other players could be on waivers or otherwise available as the week progresses.
Photos courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images
Blackhawks Recall Ethan Del Mastro
The Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Ethan Del Mastro from AHL Rockford, per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720. He fills the roster spot vacated by yesterday’s trade of Connor Murphy to the Oilers.
Del Mastro, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2021. Since then, he’s been steadily climbing the depth chart, demonstrating some real shutdown upside as a fringe top-four option or bottom-pair staple. In 161 AHL games since his pro debut in 2023, he has a 9-55–64 scoring line and a +23 rating, a top-32 figure in the league during that timeframe (min. 100 GP). This year, he has a 2-16–18 line with a +8 rating in 45 outings.
He’s gotten some NHL looks before, including a 24-game run last year that seemed to put him in contention for a full-time role as soon as this season. That hasn’t happened, due in part to their late-summer signing of Matt Grzelcyk plugging up the left side, but he did get a call-up back in December that resulted in a pair of appearances.
In January, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times ranked Del Mastro as the #10 prospect in the Hawks’ system. He noted that Wyatt Kaiser‘s and Louis Crevier‘s breakthrough campaigns this year have slightly limited his pathway toward regular time among Chicago’s glut of defense prospects, but he’s had a strong enough season in the minors to continue putting him in the conversation.
As a result, Del Mastro’s stint on the roster is only likely to last until Kaiser can return from injured reserve, unless Chicago trims another defender from its ranks by Friday’s trade deadline. Kaiser sustained a lower-body injury shortly before the Olympic break and is on track to return sometime this month. For now, Del Mastro’s got a shot to challenge fellow youngster Kevin Korchinski for ice time on the Hawks’ bottom pairing behind Grzelcyk and Alex Vlasic, attempting to leapfrog him on the depth chart before Kaiser’s activation potentially forces Chicago into a decision over who to send back to Rockford.
Trade Deadline Primer: Columbus Blue Jackets
With the Olympic break now over, the trade deadline is this week. Where do each team stand, and what moves should they be targeting? We continue our look around the league, focusing on playoff-hunting teams, and we’re back with the Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets haven’t made the playoffs since the 2020 bubble and were close last season, finishing with 89 points and narrowly missing the postseason. Coming into this year, there was an air of optimism in Columbus. However, a 19-19-7 start under former head coach Dean Evason quickly let the air out of the balloon and left many fans wondering whether Columbus would sell off their pending UFAs. They haven’t done that to this point and have climbed back into the playoff picture, going 11-2-1 under new head coach Rick Bowness. Now heading into the deadline, Columbus sits five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with a game in hand and 23 games to go. What they will do at the trade deadline is anyone’s guess, but they have dropped hints.
Record
30-21-8, 5th in the Metropolitan (39.2% playoff probability)
Deadline Status
Conservative Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$45.55MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 46/50 contracts used, per PuckPedia.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2026: CBJ 1st, STL 2nd, CBJ 3rd, COL 3rd, TOR 4th, CBJ 5th, PIT 6th, CBJ 7th
2027: CBJ 1st, CBJ 3rd, WAS 3rd, COL 3rd, CBJ 4th, CBJ 5th, CBJ 6th, CBJ 7th
Trade Chips
The Blue Jackets dealt their best trade chip at the end of December, trading Egor Chinakhov to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Danton Heinen and two draft picks. That move wasn’t a trade for this season, but it did give the Blue Jackets two additional draft picks to potentially make additions with, on top of their other catalogue of picks. Columbus GM Don Waddell doesn’t sound like he is ready to make a big splash or punt on this season, so it could be a quiet deadline in Ohio.
2021 fifth overall pick, Kent Johnson, is a potential trade chip who has been a healthy scratch for a few games now. The 23-year-old has a pair of successful NHL seasons under his belt, but they are sandwiched between several seasons of inconsistency, including this year. Johnson has just six goals and 12 assists in 56 games, after registering 24 goals and 33 assists last year in 68 games. Johnson was once touted as the Blue Jackets’ top prospect, but at this point, he could be their best trade chip if they want to make additions at the deadline. There is a gamble in moving him while he is slumping, though he does have a track record of scoring in the NHL, and it might be best to be patient with him and see if he can rediscover his game, particularly given that the Chinakhov trade looks quite bad right now for Columbus.
Columbus will likely keep this next player, but there will be interest in center Charlie Coyle. The 34-year-old has 126 games of NHL playoff experience, and many teams would love to have him as their third-line center should he be available. Coyle has 15 goals and 30 assists in 59 games this season and fits a need that many teams have, but very few sellers are currently offering. The Blue Jackets likely want to keep Coyle, but they might get offers that are too difficult to ignore for a player who likely doesn’t figure in much of the Blue Jackets’ long-term future. Even if they re-sign Coyle to a multi-year deal, he likely won’t be producing at his current levels when Columbus enters their contention window.
In terms of prospects, the Blue Jackets aren’t dealing their top picks, Cayden Lindstrom or Jackson Smith, but a prospect such as Luca Del Bel Belluz could be the centerpiece of a big trade in Columbus, had the team changed its mind and gone big-game hunting. Belluz was the Jackets’ second-round pick (44th overall) in 2022 and is likely to return to the NHL very soon, given his impressive AHL numbers this year (15 goals and 28 assists in 41 games). The 22-year-old was with Columbus until just before Christmas, when he was demoted to the AHL after posting just a single point in 13 NHL games. It was Belluz’s second lengthy NHL audition, with his previous opportunity yielding eight points in 15 games. Belluz might not have the name recognition of some of Columbus’s other prospects, but he does have a solid resume thus far and is in just his third professional season.
Team Needs
A Top Six Forward: Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, Johnson’s poor season has left the team in a spot where they could use another top-six forward. With Johnson playing his way off the top two lines, Heinen has occasionally taken a spot, as have other depth forwards. Columbus has a below-average offense, and a top-six forward could push others in the lineup into a more advantageous position and unlock additional offense. Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets, things didn’t work out with Chinakhov, as he has filled that top-six role in Pittsburgh for the Penguins, leaving them in a spot where they have to hunt down their own top-six solution.
A Top Pairing Defenseman: Damon Severson is a very good NHL player and has long been an analytical darling. But the once-offensive defenseman has struggled with turnovers over the last two seasons and is better served on the second pairing. The 31-year-old has yet to top the 30-point mark in Columbus, something he did four times in New Jersey and would be better served to play against lesser competition, which could free him up more offensively. It’s unlikely the Columbus could find a right-shot top-pairing defender before the deadline, but in a perfect world, they would supplant Severson. It’s also possible that the Blue Jackets feel they have the heir apparent in Denton Mateychuk, who is just 21 years old and has been terrific this season.
Photo by Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Lightning Place Dominic James On IR, Recall Conor Geekie
The Lightning have recalled center prospect Conor Geekie from AHL Syracuse, Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reports. Fellow pivot Dominic James was placed on injured reserve to open a roster spot.
With Gage Goncalves still dealing with an undisclosed injury, the roster math indicates Geekie could step into the lineup tonight against the Wild if head coach Jon Cooper opts for a traditional 12 forward/six defenseman alignment. It would be the 21-year-old’s first NHL game since being sent to Syracuse back in October after cracking the opening night roster.
It’s fair to say the Bolts aren’t rushing Geekie’s development. Drafted 11th overall by the Coyotes in 2022 before being sent to Tampa by Utah in the Mikhail Sergachev trade, he’s made 58 NHL appearances over the past two seasons but never got much of a leash in a top-six role. He’s scored eight goals and 15 points, with only one point coming in six games earlier this year. He averages 12:05 of ice time per game. While Tampa is surely looking for more offense out of him long-term, he has been a decent physical presence near the bottom of the lineup without disastrous possession impacts.
The 6’4″, 207-lb Geekie might now get a chance to showcase that increased offense after a spectacular bulk of the season in the minors. He was quite productive as a rookie for Syracuse last season but is now clicking at over a point per game, notching 14 goals and 51 points in 47 games on one of the AHL’s most potent offenses in Syracuse. He’s tied for fourth in the entire league in scoring and is second on his club behind league leader Jakob Pelletier.
As for James, he left the Bolts’ last game on Saturday – a 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Sabres – with a leg injury late in the third after getting tangled up with Buffalo’s Michael Kesselring. Cooper told reporters yesterday (including Erlendsson) that “his injury does not appear to be short-term,” although he’s still undergoing evaluation. He had goals in back-to-back games, bringing his total to seven in 43 games on the season.