The top NHL Trade Rumors most likely to happen
Anthony Scultore
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There’s no shortage of rumors out there. The Daily Goal Horn has made them a staple of our content in our first full year of publication. While the intent is to broaden our scope and reach, everyone loves trades and in the NHL the Trade Deadline is hockey Christmas part one with Free Agent Frenzy as the sequel.
For the purpose of this article, I looked back on all the rumors we’ve reported on to try and determine the most likely to happen. Let’s begin with the rumor capital of the hockey world, Toronto.
NHL Trade Rumor: Mikael Granlund to the Toronto Maple Leafs
This is one that’s been going on for quite awhile and in my estimation is probably the most likely to happen. Granlund is 29 years old and on a one year deal with the Predators. He has 14 points in 32 games this season in Nashville and plays both center and wing. He’s been attached to the Maple Leafs since February. Frank Seravalli provided this recent update.
“After scouring the league I believe the Leafs primary target at this point is Nashville Predator forward Mikael Granlund,” he said. Seravalli did note the two aforementioned difficulties as Toronto is spearheading an effort to get the 14 day quarantine reduced to 7 days prior to making a trade with U.S. teams. That is now done so we can remove it as a blocker.
There’s also some thought that Nashville is unwilling to make a deal because they are technically in the hunt for a playoff spot. However, David Poile probably knows that his team wouldn’t get past the Lightning if they did and has to think about the future.
Trade Probability: Very High
NHL Trade Rumor: Kyle Palmieri to the New York Islanders
Lou Lamoriello was recently interviewed by Pierre LeBrun about the upcoming trade deadline and basically acknowledged he’s looking for Anders Lee replacement. There’s been a lot of talk about Taylor Hall, but I believe the Islanders are not interested in the first round pick asking price. Plus they’ve been linked to Kyle Palmieri for awhile too. He’s a character guy for sure and would fit in very nicely on the Islanders.
“I said it earlier, we certainly will see what is available but we won’t make a trade just for the sake of making it happen…In other words, it has to be something that works for the team, that works with reference to the chemistry; it doesn’t upset the room, all the variables that to me are extremely important.”
Lamoriello via The Athletic
Trade Probability: High
NHL Rumors: Luke Glendening to the Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers are a very good team and more importantly have identified exactly what they want at the NHL Trade Deadline. Darren Dreger reported recently the Oilers are looking to add a right handed center. To be specific a face-off specialist and a penalty killer.
So who fits that bill? Well how about Luke Glendening who’s not coming back to the Detroit Red Wings. He’s the guy that leads the league in faceoff percentage this season, can also kill penalties and has a cheap cap hit. There’s two other guys that don’t require a seven-day quarantine and that would be Vancouver’s Brandon Sutter and Calgary’s Derek Ryan, although they have higher caps hits, more cap gymnastics there. And the price? Well the Oilers have traded their second, third and fifth-round picks so they’d like to do all that for a fourth-round pick if they can. We’ll see what kind of magic Ken Holland has up his sleeve.
TSN
Trade Probability: High
NHL Rumors: Taylor Hall to the Florida Panthers
The Panthers have lost three key players to injury. Patrik Holmqvist, Aleksander Barkov, and Aaron Ekblad. Last night, the Florida defenseman went down awkwardly and needed to be stretchered off the ice. He’s out long term and that freed up cap space plus a need for more scoring have me connecting the dots with Taylor Hall.
Barkov is considered day-to-day, but the Panthers will need to get past a Lightning team that will have Nikita Kucherov back just in time for the playoffs. I expect Florida to load up at the deadline and go for it. Look for Hall to land here.
Of course, you can’t discount teams like the Bruins making a desperation pitch for him as well. Hall will be traded, but it’s really hard to say exactly where he will land.
Trade Probability: Likely
NHL Rumors: Jack Eichel to the New York Rangers
The Blueshirts are gunning for Jack Eichel this summer. It’s widely believed that whether the Sabres opt to trade him or not, they are going to explore it seriously. The Rangers are expected to put forth the best package available and it may include highly touted prospect Vitali Kravtsov and much more.
The New York Rangers and Jack Eichel have been linked to each other for quite awhile. That was only reinforced when one of hockey’s top insiders, Bob McKenzie confirmed they called about him this past offseason. At the time of McKenzie’s report it didn’t sound like anything more than a exploratory call took place but Elliotte Friedman dropped a new information that says otherwise.
In a recent episode of the Lead Off, Elliotte Friedman states that the New York Rangers actually had an offer on the table. “Last year they talked – there was an offer on the table I don’t think it included the #1 pick and I’m sure Buffalo asked,” Friedman revealed. “There was an offer on the table I understand was pretty reasonable.”
One team that many believed would be in it are the L.A. Kings. However, Friedman doesn’t think they are interested in making the move. I spoke with a league source who does not believe the Kings want to add another $10 million player to their roster and part with the big pieces in order to complete the trade
“The team with the best combination of the want and ability to do it is the Rangers, but is Buffalo going to be comfortable sending him there,” Friedman explained. “So part of the issue [for the Sabres] is going to be does anybody have the will to beat what the Rangers have to offer.”
Trade Probability: Very Likely