NHL Trade Deadline: Biggest Sellers at the Deadline
By Santagata JJ
The NHL Trade Deadline is Coming Quickly and Some of These Sellers Will Be Willing to Make Some Serious Moves at the Trade Deadline.
It’s time to get serious people, the trade deadline is exactly 5 days away. With the reemergence of some playoff teams and a few teams dropping in the standings. There has been a lot of interesting speculations.
Now may I remind you these are all speculations, I’m no Bob McKenzie over here, so I’m just relaying what I’ve heard via the internet and Twitter.
Big Sellers in the NHL Trade Market
Dallas Stars
First on the seller’s list, Dallas Stars. This has to be the most surprising for some, but let’s be honest over the years Dallas has struggled tremendously with goal-tending. And Jim Nill continues to avoid the obvious problem in Dallas, goal-tending.
That being said Dallas NEEDS a #1 goalie. Weather it be Marc-Andre Fleury, Jaroslav Halak or Ben Bishop, any of the three are better than what they have now. As well Dallas has six UFA forwards, four RFA forwards and one UFA defensemen along with three RFA defensemen.
As you can tell it’s obvious the Stars have a lot of cap room to play with ultimately making them sellers. A few sellers for Dallas are, Johnny Oduya, Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky, Jiri Hudler. Now Dallas roster is accompanied by a lot of veterans but with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin the appeal factor for others around the league is there.
Carolina Hurricanes
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Second on the seller list, Carolina Hurricanes. No surprise here, but the Hurricanes are having a better year. Although they are last in the Metropolitan, being it’s the most competitive division right now Carolina is still .500, 24-24. It’s some progress.
Carolina recently traded away 35 year old defenseman Ron Hainsey to Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2nd round pick and AHL forward Danny Kristo, showing their seller status. Now Carolina needs a #1 center to pair with Jeff Skinner.
They have a stockpile of draft picks to offer to teams along with some veteran ship and some young forwards. Carolina would be interested in moving, Lee Stempniak and Viktor Stalberg. Now obviously those two don’t offer much of a return, Carolina could open talks to Colorado for Duchene or Tampa for Tyler Johnson, being their playoff status right now Carolina could work on a deal maybe involving Noah Hanifin.
To strengthen their offense, yields some blows on the defensive end.
Buffalo Sabres
Third on the seller list, Buffalo Sabres, again no surprise but substantial progress is being made in Buffalo in regards to competitiveness.
This has been Buffalo’s best year in quite sometime, they’re four points out of a playoff spot. Yes you read that correctly. Although they are four points out, Buffalo is not ready to put in all their chips and be buyers, therefore making them sellers.
Buffalo needs some good veteran ship, not Brian Gionta or Matt Moulson. A veteran who can score goals consistently. As well as some depth on defense, with Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake McCabe.
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Buffalo could consider moving Josh Gorges or Dmitry Kulikov for a bit more defensive depth. In the end Buffalo has made some steps in the right direction, they need a few more pieces to complete them being legitimate playoff contenders.