5 intriguing players under 24 who should be traded at the NHL trade deadline
Quite a few young players should find themselves heading elsewhere at the 2024 NHL trade deadline, and five of them stand out more than the others.
It’s one of the most intriguing times of the season, as the 2024 NHL trade deadline is just one week away. Throughout the first week of March, expect plenty of big-name players to be on the move, but they won’t be the only ones to look out for.
This is also a great time for teams slated to stand idle or even ‘sell’ at the deadline to strongly consider adding younger players from contenders and non-contenders alike. Prospects will be on the move, especially as contending teams seek to entice projected ‘sellers’ into trading away productive players even if they figure to be ‘rentals’ for the last few weeks of the season and the postseason.
There are other players who may have either moved on from the prospects label or have spent time with the big club of their respective organization, but for one reason or another, they just haven’t stuck and are playing in the AHL.
Several teams should look to move younger players at the NHL trade deadline
One player who could see their name called at some point this week is Nick Robertson, should the Toronto Maple Leafs be interested in making another trade before the deadline. Toronto already traded for blueliner Ilya Lyubushkin, but he didn’t come at a steep price, so there is still room for Toronto to make a bigger splash by offering a player like Robertson.
He’s a young talent who any ‘seller’ looking to acquire him could get and easily extend, given his RFA status. In return, that team could sell an older but more established player to the Maple Leafs and even offer to retain some of the contract until the end of the year.
Toronto would win by finally putting themselves in perhaps their best position yet to make a deep playoff run, while the ‘seller’ also wins by landing a potential-laden 22-year-old. But Robertson isn’t the only player who could find themselves playing in another city in the days leading to the March 8th deadline.
Kaapo Kakko is one player the Rangers should ‘sell’ by March 8th
There are a few good suitors for a player like Kaapo Kakko, whether they figure to be ‘buyers’ or ‘sellers’ in the next week. Kakko, like many young players under age 24 on this list, hasn’t produced the way most thought a high draft pick like him would, amassing just 11 points and seven goals in 39 games with the Rangers this season. But he’s also gone on point streaks and has shown flashes of becoming more than just a high pick that dipped well below expectations.
The 2022-23 season was the best example when Kakko recorded 40 points while appearing in all 82 games. He also had 18 goals, a 14.4 shooting percentage, and he saw over 73 minutes on the power play. Better yet, New York scored seven goals while Kakko was on the ice at 5-on-4, good for a 12.7 on-ice scoring percentage, indicating he can be a sound contributor on the man advantage.
Kakko hasn’t been consistent, but he’s flashed potential
He also logged a fair 52.6 Corsi For Percentage at even strength and 52.4 at 5-on-5, showing us he can contribute offensively in all situations. This tells us he doesn’t need to try and salvage his career as a defensive-minded forward, as you sometimes see regarding first-rounders whose points production has been below-average.
Speaking of defense, while he’s only logged nine takeaways this season, Kakko had 47 last year, further showing us he’s willing to steal pucks and create opportunities for big plays.
New York’s top goaltender, Igor Shesterkin, hasn’t been himself for a good portion of the year. But he probably appreciated Kakko’s presence on the ice in the defensive zone, given the 22-year-old’s on-ice save percentage of 94.5 percent at even strength and a slightly higher 94.6 at 5-on-5.
If the Red Wings buy, Jonatan Berggren is a player they need to sell
Buying at the trade deadline is synonymous with the Detroit Red Wings, perhaps more than any other NHL team, but one way to entice a ‘seller’ into making a blockbuster move would involve adding a prospect like Jonatan Berggren to the mix. Younger teams in complete rebuilding mode would be the best fits for Berggren, and the 33rd-overall pick in 2018 would also come with NHL experience.
No, he hasn’t fared the way we all expected him to in Detroit, but it also doesn’t mean that a ‘seller’ should be deterred from trying to add the 23-year-old to a potential trade package. He may have scored just 28 points in 67 games last season and lasted just nine games in Detroit this year, but they also need to consider how well he has played at the AHL and international levels.
In 2022-23, he put up 11 points and two goals in 12 contests for Team Sweden in international play, and he’s since followed up that epic production with 42 points and 17 goals with the Grand Rapids Griffins. This has put him on pace to snag 66 points and 27 goals in 63 games if he stays healthy, so it’s clear Berggren has all the tools to produce at professional hockey’s highest level.
A new outlook in Columbus means Adam Boqvist should end up elsewhere
What’s intriguing about organizations potentially shopping younger, less-established talent is that a contender looking to ‘buy’ at the trade deadline may not be interested in them. Instead, someone deemed as a ‘seller’ could take a chance on such young talent, and Adam Boqvist is one of those players.
While he has barely logged anything higher than bottom-pairing minutes throughout his career, Boqvist is a blueliner who can provide a two-way game for a team that needs to add another young defenseman to their core.
His 2023-24 season has been forgettable, with eight measly points in 28 games as of February 28th. But look at last year, when he scored 24 points in 46 contests, or the season before, when Boqvist appeared in 52 games, but racked up 22 points.
Boqvist is also good on the power play, having logged nearly 200 minutes over his past 74 games since the 2022-23 season began. The Blue Jackets have scored 19 power play goals while he’s been on the ice, plus an on-ice scoring percentage of roughly 10.25.
While young, he’s somebody who can give a young organization an experienced blueliner, given his 202 games so far. Boqvist can also be a young leader since he’s faced quite a bit of adversity throughout his career.
If an organization that has found itself well outside of the playoff race trades for Boqvist, don’t be surprised, because he could make for a great asset who they can sign to an extension next season.
The Oilers couldn’t make it work with Philip Broberg, so trade him
The Edmonton Oilers may not have much saved up in their finances to afford a big-name player to help them make a deep playoff run, but by adding an enticing prospect, a non-contending team could agree to retain a significant part of a contract.
Philip Broberg is one of those former first-round picks who has yet to play like one, but young players like him often get second and even third chances with NHL organizations. No, he hasn’t shown much so far in his professional career, but he hasn’t even reached his 23rd birthday yet, so Broberg still has time to put his career onto the right path with another organization.
The Oilers could further entice a ‘seller’ this season with a player who could provide veteran leadership in Cody Ceci to trade alongside Broberg, which would give the latter a familiar face in another organization should they look to clear even more cap space.
There are a few ways Edmonton could go about sending Broberg elsewhere, but it has become clear the entire experiment with the organization has fallen short. The 22-year-old has seen just 79 contests starting in the 2021-22 season, and he hasn’t even played regular third-pairing minutes.
Edmonton needs to do whatever it takes to ‘hard sell’ him to a team looking to add talent to its prospects pool, even if that talent has had a hard time finding their trajectory when they should be at least a serviceable contributor.
Trevor Zegras is one young player the Anaheim Ducks would benefit from trading
Trevor Zegras is a good fit for what the Anaheim Ducks want to do this season, and that is to retain young talent and brew a core. Recently, Zegras has put up 61 and 65-point seasons, and he possesses a complete skill-set that’s hard to find, but seven points in 20 games this season and a serious lower-body injury may have changed the franchise’s outlook.
Plus, there is still the strong possibility he can bring the kind of compensation the organization can’t pass up. So, despite his sheer talent and young age, Anaheim could get a lot for the intriguing forward who should return in time to help a contending team snag a respectable playoff spot in their final 15 regular season games, and even over the next two seasons, at minimum.
For a rebuilding team like the Ducks, trading Zegras looks counterintuitive, but current playoff contenders looking to win a Cup and are interested in acquiring more than a rental know what he can bring. While the offseason could be more realistic than the trade deadline to move Zegras, it doesn’t mean the Ducks shouldn’t do all they can to set a high price and execute a deal if a contender is willing to match it by March 8th.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference and Elite Prospects as of March 1st)