Big Moves Coming

As the NHL season is slowly heading into playoff season, this means that the NHL trade deadline is approaching, we are less than a week away from the deadline and teams are looking to boost their lineup any way they can to contend for the Stanley Cup. A few teams that I have in mind that need to add at the deadline are, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers. All these teams are solid, but they have one thing in common, and that is they cannot get out of the first round, if any of these three teams want to win they have to add.

Let’s start with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins keep proving to everyone that age is just a number, and are sitting fifth in the entire NHL, but right now they are struggling with depth scoring. If the Penguins want to win another cup in the Crosby/Malkin era they CAN NOT just produce with the top six, they need depth and badly. In the last 10 games, the bottom nine excluding Malkin has only scored 11 goals, excluding defensemen that number goes down to eight which is horrendous. The only counterargument one can make is that parts of their middle six are injured, with the likes of Jason Zucker and Brock McGinn, also Kasperi Kapanen in the biggest slump of his NHL career. Jason Zucker has had no good luck from the hockey gods this year, producing only six goals and 13 points in just 31 games this year, Zucker who is a key part of this team can’t catch a break, his last game he played he scored two goals in his first game back from an injury, then the next day he needs surgery, McGinn who recently got injured has been pretty solid this year so you can’t complain about him. Kapanen on the other hand, oh boy where do I get started, he has been awful with producing, from what I have been watching, he’s been skating well, backchecking well, and pretty much been playing Ok, but for someone who isn’t producing who has a shot that Kapanen that doesn’t bode well for the team. The Penguins will look to add to the bottom nine, and a couple of people I have had my eye on for this team are, Brock Boeser, Richard Rikell, Jesper Bratt, and Phil Kessel. The cost for Brock Boeser would most likely be John Marino, Nathan Légaré, and a third-round pick, that might be what teams would want from the penguins in exchange for these players besides Kessel, they would get a second or third-round pick.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, they NEED a goalie and slightly fix their defense. The Leafs offense is lethal, that needs no change, the big issues is goaltending and defense, if they can trade Justin Holl for a mid-round pick that would be great for them, then getting a solid player in the likes of Calvin De Haan, or if they can finesse the cap slightly, bring in Jakob Chychrun, another option is bringing back Luke Schenn but getting a goalie right now is the main issue. Jack Campbell was great in the first half of the season but quickly fell back down to earth, they need someone who they can trust when big games are on the table. Marc-Andre Fleury is the main goalie on the market and I believe that the Leafs will look to acquire him if they can get around the cap again. Semyon Varlamov is another goalie they can look at who is a great playoff goalie if the Islanders do decide to ship him off. The last one is Alexander Georgiev, who has been wanting out of New York for a while, it wouldn't be a shock to see the Leafs acquire him.

With Edmonton, there is a lot that they need, like the Penguins they need depth scoring and with the Leafs they need a goalie who can take them to the final destination, as well as defense. The Oilers have been linked to Fleury for a couple of months now, and that is the exact goalie they need right now, a goalie who is used to winning and one that can carry them to cup, he did it in the inaugural season with Vegas why can’t he do it with Edmonton, he ages like fine wine. Their depth scoring can use some help, if they can bring in someone like Rickard Rakell, that would be great for them. A nice second or third-line winger, can’t get much better than that. Another option is to go after Mike Hoffman, another depth winger who is on a team-friendly deal and can be a nice piece to the Oilers. Now defense wise, they can really add anyone but don’t have much cap, there are a bunch of defensemen on the trade block and a nice one I like is Jeff Petry whose contract is pretty big, but if they can get around that issue he would be solid for them. Another one I see is his teammate Ben Chiarot, who can be a nice rental for them and finally take the Oilers to the next step, but their main priority should be to go after Fleury.

I don’t see all these teams making these big moves, but if these teams want Lord Stanley, they would have to make a significant trade to bolster their roster. The trade deadline is a fun time to be a hockey fan, so get your popcorn, sit down and enjoy these moves teams are about to make.

By: Aaron Hoffer