NHL: Which Western Conference teams should stay, buy, and sell?

Sell

1. San Jose Sharks

This team has been struggling in large part because of the lack of goaltending they’ve been getting from Martin Jones and Aaron Dell. While getting a goaltender might help, this team has bigger problems than just their netminders. This team is getting older and as the league gets younger and faster, the Sharks continue to go the opposite way.

While having veteran presences are important in the locker room, having so much money locked up on aging talent is not a good recipe for success as exemplified by the LA Kings.

The San Jose Sharks have five contracts that have 4+ years left on players that are 28 years or older. (Logan Couture, Evander Kane, Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Erik Karlsson, Martin Jones). What San Jose should do is attempt to move some of these contracts while their players are still in their prime. When they get older, the contracts will become unmovable and handcuff the team.

2. LA Kings

The Los Angeles Kings are beginning a rebuild and have many players circulating in rumours including Tyler Toffoli and Alec Martinez. Last year, they traded away Jake Muzzin for a defensive prospect, Carl Grundstrom, and a first-round pick. This year will be no different as the Kings will want to deal some roster players away for prospects and picks to continue building for the future.

The team has some great veteran leadership as well as some promising young players but they still have some ways to go before becoming competitive again. Perhaps some big trades before the Deadline will help the Kings along in their rebuild.

3. Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks are ready for a rebuild and according to Elliotte Friedman, Bob Murray is willing to take on bad contracts in exchange for draft picks and prospects. (Perhaps the Vancouver Canucks are interested?)

The Ducks have some promising young players and having Ryan Getzlaf in the locker room as a mentor is invaluable. With a young goaltender of John Gibson‘s calibre locked up long term, it shouldn’t take long to build a competitive team, especially with the Ducks’ success in the draft. As long as they can make use of their cap space to get more pieces for the future, this rebuild will go by very quickly.

The Ducks have a bunch of good supporting players like Jakob Silfverberg, Rickard Rakell, and Adam Henrique, but they lack the player that is the ultimate difference-maker. It used to be Getzlaf, but at 34 years old, Anaheim needs to find their next star.