New Jersey Devils Have Expressed Interest In Ryan O’Reilly
According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the New Jersey Devils have contacted the Nashville Predators regarding Ryan O’Reilly‘s availability. New Jersey is desperately attempting to fill the void left by Jack Hughes after losing him for the remainder of the season due to shoulder surgery.
O’Reilly makes sense as a Devils’ trade target for several reasons. He won’t be able to replicate Hughes’s high-level scoring, but he’s a robust two-way center with plenty of playoff experience. Even when Hughes returns next September, adding O’Reilly would give New Jersey a solid center trio through the 2026-27 season.
The 16-year veteran is in year two of a four-year, $18MM contract signed with the Predators in 2023. He performed admirably in his first year with the club, scoring 26 goals and 69 points in 82 games. On the defensive side of the puck, O’Reilly carried a 53.9% faceoff rate, with many of those draws coming in the offensive zone. Because of his performance last year, O’Reilly finished 36th in Selke Trophy voting.
Like many players on Nashville’s roster, O’Reilly has struggled offensively. Still, there are a few positives to take away from his performance this season. O’Reilly has increased his faceoff rate to 56.6% and his CorsiFor% at even strength to 55.1%. He would make a valuable addition to New Jersey for his faceoff rate alone, given the team ranks 24th in the category with a 49.05% success rate.
There would be offensive struggles in New Jersey the rest of the way simply because there’s no replacing Hughes in the lineup. Still, O’Reilly is an adequate second-line center on any team and could slide down to the third line next season. Unfortunately, the Predators won’t let him be had very easily.
Although his contract doesn’t have trade protection, the Predators have publicly stated they’ll treat O’Reilly as if he has a full no-movement clause. Meanwhile, despite being 30th in the league standings, Nashville hasn’t expressed much desire to move him.
The Devils must present the Predators with a substantial offer if they want O’Reilly to change hands. Since he is not a rental player, this might be something they are willing to consider.
Sharks Holding Luke Kunin Out For Trade Purposes
The San Jose Sharks are planning to hold forward Luke Kunin out of the lineup on Thursday night for trade-related purposes. The decision was first reported by Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group and later seconded by Chris Johnston of The Athletic. San Jose traded fourth-line centerman Nico Sturm to the Florida Panthers earlier on Thursday – and would part with both of their bottom-six centerman should Kunin also be on the move.
Kunin has been a part of two trades in his eight-year career, though neither came in the middle of the season. The Minnesota Wild drafted Kunin with the 15th-overall selection in the 2016 NHL Draft and promoted him to the NHL two years later. He started off slow, with just 21 points across his first 68 games and two NHL seasons. He was reassigned to the minors for part of the 2018-19 campaign and found much hardier scoring – 20 points in 28 AHL games – which sparked a breakout performance in the 2019-20 season. Kunin posted a career-high 15 goals and 31 points in 63 games that year. Minnesota followed that statement year by selling high on Kunin before the start of the following season, dealing him to the Nashville Predators for Nick Bonino and the draft pick that would turn into Marat Khusnutdinov.
Kunin initially held onto his scoring through the early-career move, with 10 goals and 19 points in his first 38 games in Nashville. But a lower-body injury cut his first year with the Predators short, and he only managed 22 points in 82 games after returning in 2021-22. That downward trend prompted another move, with Nashville sending Kunin to San Jose for John Leonard and a draft pick in July of 2022. Kunin has filled a depth role in San Jose in the three seasons since. He’s twice scored 11 goals and 18 points in a single Sharks season – managing the feat in 77 games last year and 63 games of this season.
But those numbers are still far from the 30-point ceiling Kunin managed at his best. He’s a physically imposing centerman, but needs the backing of a hardy line to be at his best. He’ll be a cheap option on the open market, though any potential buyer will have to hope yet another trade can kick Kunin’s goal-scoring back into gear.
Kraken Holding Out Brandon Tanev For Trade Purposes
The Seattle Kraken are planning to hold winger Brandon Tanev out of the lineup in Thursday night’s game against the Nashville Predators per Sporstnet’s Elliotte Friedman. This will be Seattle’s way of protecting their assets with Friday’s Trade Deadline looming. Tanev has been a frequent mention in trade rumors leading into deadline season.
Tanev has played for three different clubs in his 10-year career, but the heat of trade rumors is a new feeling. He’s never been traded before, instead making his moves through free agency and NHL expansion drafts. Tanev broke into the pros after scoring 28 points in 38 games of his senior season at Providence College. That convinced Winnipeg to sign Tanev to a one-year, undrafted free agent contract out of college and promote him directly to the NHL. He received a handful of games across the next three seasons, each time performing well enough in a bottom-six role to convince the Jets to re-up his contract. But he struggled to muster much production, with just 22 points and 44 penalty minutes in the first 116 games and three seasons of his NHL career. But continued trust from the Jets organization paid off in the 2018-19 season. Tanev lapped his previous totals that year, posting 14 goals, 29 points, and 41 penalty minutes in 80 games.
With a burgeoning bottom-six, Winnipeg opted to let Tanev walk to free agency after his breakout year. After four years of one-year contracts and with one substantial performance under his belt, Tanev landed a six-year, $21MM contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins on the open market. He held up his performances in his first year with Pittsburgh, netting 11 goals and 25 points in 68 games – but routine absences quickly became troublesome. Tanev would play in just 62 games of the next two seasons. He scored an encouraging 16 goals and 31 points in those appearances – and seem well set up for a breakout year whenever he found his way back to full health.
That’s exactly what happened in Seattle after the Kraken chose the hard-nosed winger with their expansion draft selection from Pittsburgh. Tanev managed a career-high 16 goals, 35 points, and 44 penalty minutes in 82 games of Seattle’s 2022-23 season. It was another breakout for the hard-hitting wing, though he’s failed to live up to it in the two years since – with 33 points and 61 penalty minutes in his last 126 games. Tanev is still a hard-working, physical, and strong bottom-six winger with a flash of goal-scoring upside. He’s in the final year of his multi-year extension originally signed in Pittsburgh, and could offer a cheap and physical rental option on a market now without former Bruins center Trent Frederic.
Calgary Flames Sign Connor Murphy To One-Year Contract
According to a team announcement, the Calgary Flames have signed netminder Connor Murphy to a two-way NHL contract for the remainder of the season.
Murphy had been playing on an AHL contract for the last two years. The Hudson Falls, NY native joined the Flames organization as an undrafted free agent after a four-year collegiate career split between Northeastern University and Union College.
He didn’t receive much playing time as a freshman and sophomore with the Huskins, leading Murphy to transfer to the Garnet Chargers ahead of the 2021-22 NCAA season. He performed well in eastern New York, securing a 14-18-3 record in 37 games during his junior year with a .919 SV% and 2.66 GAA. Unfortunately, Murphy took a step back in his last collegiate season, managing a 12-17-1 record in 31 appearances with a .889 SV% and 3.34 GAA.
Since joining the Flames organization, he’s had opposite seasons. Murphy performed quite well for the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers in the 2023-24 season while having lackluster results with the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. The same isn’t true this season.
Throughout his two-year professional career, Murphy has accrued a 6-6-3 record in AHL Calgary with a .912 SV% and 2.91 GAA. In the ECHL, the 26-year-old has a 15-16-5 record in 37 contests with a .906 SV% and 3.20 GAA.
Bruins Taking Calls On Brad Marchand
Despite Bruins captain Brad Marchand‘s desire to stay with the team past the deadline even if they don’t have an extension in hand, the Boston front office has other plans. They’re now listening to calls on trade inquiries for the star winger while continuing extension dialogue, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
Moving Marchand would mark a seismic shift in Boston’s organizational identity in myriad ways. A post-4 Nations break skid and injuries to top defenders Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy had the Bruins resigned as deadline sellers for the first time in a decade. Naturally, the assumption was they’d take a cautious approach to retooling their roster and move out some of their depth pending free agents. They already accomplished a deal for one of them, sending Trent Frederic to Edmonton earlier this week.
That’s not the case. Reports over the past week indicate they’re also open to moving players with term, namely top-six forwards Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha and top-four defenseman Brandon Carlo. Shipping out their captain, though, even as a pending UFA, removes the Bruins’ longest-tenured player and only remaining member from their 2011 Stanley Cup championship and indicates something closer to a rebuild than a retool as they consider their offseason plans.
While the Bruins are only three points out of a playoff spot, they have negative games in hand and are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games. That has their playoff odds down to 5% amid a crowded Eastern playoff picture, per MoneyPuck, and the likelihood of a surge up the standings is limited significantly by an upper-body injury to Marchand himself. He’s listed as week-to-week after he was on the receiving end of a huge hit from Penguins defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph last weekend, so he wouldn’t be able to play for a new team immediately after a trade.
The possibility of a Marchand move is only starting to spike in real-time. He was left off The Fourth Period’s most recent trade board entirely, and Johnston had Marchand listed as the 37th and final player on the board he released just this morning.
But given this year’s market for rental pieces, it’s clear to see why Bruins general manager Don Sweeney would at least listen to offers. Boston could very well land multiple first-round picks or similarly-valued assets for his services, even without an extension agreed to. They still have two retention slots remaining and could slash his already palatable $6.125MM cap hit in half to make a trade to a cap-strapped contender easier. For a team with one of the worst prospect pools in the league, it’s an appealing thought for their odds of being championship contenders again by the end of the decade.
St. Louis Blues Sign Colten Ellis To Two-Year Extension
The St. Louis Blues are retaining some of their organizational goaltending depth beyond this season. St. Louis announced they’ve extended netminder Colten Ellis to a two-year, two-way contract through the 2026-27 NHL season.
Ellis became property of the Blues when the organization selected him with the 93rd overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. The 24-year-old netminder was coming off an impressive season with the QMJHL’s Rimouski Océanic, managing a 27-15-2 record through 46 games with a .910 SV% and 2.47 GAA. Unfortunately, the Océanic couldn’t excel beyond the QMJHL playoff semifinals despite Ellis’s strong playoff performance.
The River Denys, Nova Scotia native spent a few more years in the QMJHL with the Océanic and Charlottetown Islanders before joining the professional ranks for the 2021-22 season. Until the current campaign, Ellis had frequently bounced around the AHL and ECHL. Due to his play with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds this season, it is unlikely that Ellis will play in the ECHL anytime soon.
He’s expected to finish his ECHL career with a 39-27-11 record in 82 games with a .904 SV% and 3.10 GAA split between the Worcester Railers, Tulsa Oilers, and Orlando Solar Bears. Not only has Ellis become the top netminder for the Thunderbirds this year, but he’s also becoming one of the best in the AHL. He’s managed a 19-7-5 record through 31 games and is second in the league with a .926 SV%. Barring a monumental collapse in their 18 remaining contests, Ellis should make his postseason debut in the AHL with the Thunderbirds ranked in the top six of the Atlantic Division.
Golden Knights Acquire Reilly Smith From Rangers
2:23 p.m.: The Knights and Rangers have made the trade official as reported.
12:58 p.m.: The Golden Knights are acquiring winger Reilly Smith from the Rangers in exchange for the Sharks’ 2025 third-round pick and forward prospect Brendan Brisson, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports. Vegas doesn’t have the space to accommodate Smith’s already-reduced $3.75MM cap hit, so New York is retaining 50% of his salary, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The Golden Knights have an open roster spot and won’t need to make a corresponding transaction.
It’s a reunion for Smith and Vegas, where he was a top-six fixture from the Knights’ inception through their run to the 2023 Stanley Cup championship. Cap constraints following the championship run influenced Vegas to deal Smith, who turns 34 next month, to the Penguins for a third-round pick. His tenure in Pittsburgh was underwhelming, limited to 13-27–40 in 76 games – halving his goal production from his final season with the Knights despite seeing consistent second-line deployment with the Pens alongside Evgeni Malkin.
Multiple reports indicated Smith wasn’t pleased with the move, which he couldn’t block with only a 12-team no-trade list. In addition to coming off a championship and playing a formative role in Vegas’ development as a franchise, he’d signed a three-year, $15MM extension with Vegas the prior offseason. The Penguins, content to find someone else to replace Smith’s minutes, flipped him to the Rangers last summer for a second- and fifth-round pick while retaining 25% of his salary.
Smith’s production didn’t rebound at all in the Big Apple. He’s scoring goals at the exact rate per game, and his point-per-game pace has dropped from 0.53 with the Pens to 0.50 with the Blueshirts. The veteran has 10-19–29 through 58 games and is on pace to register his fewest shots on goal in a season since his rookie year with the Stars in 2012-13.
During his first six-year tenure in Vegas, Smith averaged 26 goals and 59 points per 82 games. It’s unlikely he captures quite that much production on a per-game basis down the stretch given his recent decline, but he adds a familiar name to a bit of a hodgepodge group of wingers in Nevada. The team turned to the bargain bin on the free agent market last summer after losing Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault, center Chandler Stephenson, and serviceable depth scorer Michael Amadio to free agency, picking up names like Victor Olofsson and Tanner Pearson on the cheap. They also inked veteran Brandon Saad mid-season after he mutually terminated his contract with the Blues.
They’ve gotten solid showings out of Olofsson and Pearson. They are enjoying a 24-goal breakout campaign from Pavel Dorofeyev, but depth on the wings remained the Golden Knights’ most enormous hole on paper heading into the trade deadline. They’ll address it here instead of a more significant, complex acquisition like star Mikko Rantanen, who they were linked to this morning. That aligns with what general manager Kelly McCrimmon predicted for his club earlier this week.
Dealing Smith continues the Rangers’ unloading of pending UFAs for futures ahead of the deadline, but that will mark the extent of their selling as they remain in the Eastern Conference wild card race. They also shipped out defenseman Ryan Lindgren and winger Jimmy Vesey to the Avalanche over the weekend.
The most intriguing part of their return lies in Brisson, whom Vegas selected 29th overall in the 2020 draft. The 23-year-old winger was expected to compete for a roster spot out of camp this season amid the Knights’ aforementioned turnover. While he landed the gig, he had no points in nine games before being sent to AHL Henderson. His minor-league performance this season has been nothing short of disastrous, limited to 5-14–19 in 45 games with a team-worst -24 rating. His trade value was slashed as a result.
New York hopes Brisson can rebound to his 2023-24 form with their affiliate in Hartford. He looked promising with 38 points in 52 AHL games last year and even tallied a respectable 2-6–8 scoring line in 15 games of NHL action, the first of his career. With the move, the Golden Knights have now traded all of their first-round selections in franchise history outside of last year’s pickup, Trevor Connelly.
Smith’s absence will also continue an expanded youth movement in New York, which really started when the Rangers began scratching Smith for trade protection a few days ago. There’s more guaranteed ice time for names like Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann, and potentially even Brisson depending on his first impression in the AHL, down the stretch.
As for Vegas, they now have just roughly $500K in cap space, per PuckPedia. Unless they determine William Karlsson‘s or Shea Theodore‘s injuries will hold them out for the rest of the regular season, there’s no LTIR flexibility for them to dip into.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blue Jackets Claim Christian Fischer From Red Wings
2:19 p.m.: Columbus announced they’ve reassigned Pyyhtia as the corresponding move. He has 4-3–7 in 47 games with the Jackets this year with a -11 rating.
1:08 p.m.: The Blue Jackets have claimed winger Christian Fischer off waivers from the Red Wings, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
Given that the Blue Jackets didn’t have any additional room on their roster for another player, the team will have to make a corresponding roster move to make Fischer’s claim official. The inevitable roster move will presumably see forward Joseph Labate or Mikael Pyyhtia reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.
Today’s claim ends a nearly two-year run for Fischer in Detroit. The former 32nd-overall pick of the 2015 NHL Draft signed with the Red Wings in the summer of 2023 after being non-tendered by the Arizona Coyotes.
Before signing with the second team of his nine-year career, Fischer had shown flashes of being an effective bottom-six scorer. The Chicago, IL native scored 56 goals and 111 points in 398 games in a Coyotes uniform, averaging 13:16 of ice time per game. That scoring output includes a career-year during his sophomore campaign in 2017-18, registering 15 goals and 33 points in 79 contests, finishing seventh on the team in scoring.
Similarly to the end of his tenure in Arizona, Fischer has been primarily utilized as a defensive winger in Detroit. He’ll finish his time with the Red Wings with six goals and 26 points in 124 games while also laying 227 body checks.
Fischer should be a better player than Columbus’s other options on the team’s fourth line, but they shouldn’t have any ideas about putting Fischer on the team’s penalty kill. The Blue Jackets could use help in that department, given their 26th-ranked success rate with a man disadvantage. However, Fischer had sometimes featured on Detroit’s league-worst penalty kill, with a ghastly on-ice goals against/60 while short handed of 15.4.
Blues’ Colton Parayko Out Six Weeks After Knee Operation
In a massive blow to their defensive core, the St. Louis Blues announced Colton Parayko will miss the next six weeks after undergoing a scope on his left knee. Given that six weeks from today is two days after the Blues’ final regular season matchup, it likely means Parayko is done for the regular season.
The knee procedure was required after the team’s shootout win against the Los Angeles Kings last night. During the overtime period, Parayko fell awkwardly after an offensive zone faceoff, leading to his removal from the game for the remainder of the action.
It’s an unfortunate end to what was becoming a career year for the St. Albert, Alberta native. Parayko was, and still is, leading all Blues defensemen in goals, assists, points, even-strength goals, shots on goal, average time on ice, blocked shots, hits, and takeaways. He had already matched his career-high of 35 points in 18 fewer games.
Still, it wasn’t a completely perfect season for Parayko. Although his possession metrics have improved from last year, he’s still averaging a 47.1% CorsiFor% at even strength, slightly below his career average of 48.3%. Meanwhile, his defensive metrics have taken a hit, as evidenced by his career low 89.8% on-ice save percentage at even strength, but much of that can be explained by his 59.0% defensive zone starts percentage.
Regardless of the moderately depressed defensive metrics, it’s hard to define Parayko’s 2024-25 campaign as anything short of an impressive rebound. He’s raised his On-Ice Goals % at even strength from 40.7% in 2022-23 and 46.2% in 2023-24 to a solid 53.2% in 2024-25, notably driving the Blues’ offense.
After appearing as a net loss contract a few years ago, Parayko’s $6.5MM salary through the 2029-30 season is becoming more of an ideal contract for St. Louis. Parayko had been floated as a potential trade candidate leading into Friday’s deadline, but interested teams will likely revisit in the offseason once he’s recovered from the knee injury.
Panthers, Jets Swap Chris Driedger, Kaapo Kähkönen
The Panthers and Jets have swapped third-string goaltenders. Both teams announced Chris Driedger is heading from Florida to Winnipeg after being assigned to the AHL earlier today, while Kaapo Kähkönen is heading south to the Cats. Neither player was on their team’s active roster.
It’s an act of goodwill on both teams’ behalf, trading underperforming veterans in hopes of fresh starts in more familiar environments. Driedger heads back to his hometown in the deal, while the Finnish Kähkönen gets to serve as the No. 3 for the league’s most Finn-heavy team.
Driedger was briefly a bona fide backup option with Florida around the turn of the decade, erupting for a .931 SV% and 2.07 GAA in 35 games during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. That got him claimed by the Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft and subsequently signed to a three-year, $10.5MM deal, although injuries and poor play derailed his tenure in Seattle from the start. He’s only logged two NHL appearances in the last three years, both coming last season in Seattle.
He hoped to get his career back on track last summer by returning to Florida on a cheap $795K contract, but he lost the training camp battle to be Sergei Bobrovsky‘s backup to youngster Spencer Knight. While he’d been a strong minor-league option for the Kraken when healthy, the same can’t be said for his performance with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate in Charlotte this year. The 30-year-old has struggled to the tune of a .878 SV% and 2.97 GAA in 20 outings for the farm club. When Florida traded Knight to the Blackhawks last weekend in the Seth Jones deal, they moved to acquire Vítek Vaněček from the Sharks to serve as their backup down the stretch instead of giving Driedger a long-term promotion.
Driedger and Kähkönen will now replace each other as veteran options for Charlotte and Manitoba down the stretch. Kähkönen has been an NHL fixture for a few years but, like Driedger, lost a training camp battle for a backup spot after signing a one-year, $1MM deal in Winnipeg. After being passed over for Eric Comrie, he landed on waivers and was claimed by the Avalanche. He lasted about a month in Colorado before landing on the waiver wire again, upon which the Jets re-claimed him and sent him directly to the minors.
Despite posting a pedestrian but respectable .898 SV% in 140 career NHL games, Kähkönen’s underperformed that mark in Manitoba. He’s got just a .885 SV% and 3.29 GAA in 22 games with the AHL’s Moose, yielding a poor 6-14-1 record as a result. He may get a chance to backup Bobrovsky down the stretch if Vaněček underwhelms, but for now, he’ll bide his time in Charlotte.
Coincidentally, Vaněček and Kähkönen now end up in the same organization after being traded for each other at last year’s deadline in a deal between the Devils and Sharks.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff was first to report the deal.