We’re beyond the one-quarter mark of the season now and with American Thanksgiving in the rear view mirror (an important milestone date in the big picture playoff chase) teams, for the most part, now have a better understanding of what they have, what they don’t, and what it means for the rest of the season.
A team like Arizona was always likely to sell pieces off and that remains so, but what about Montreal or Vancouver? One has undergone a big front office change, while the other is waiting on what seems like an inevitable move somewhere in the organization. Both have severely underperformed expectations.
And what of Seattle, one of the few teams with some cap space? Or Dallas, two years removed from a Stanley Cup Final appearance and now on a five-game winning streak and in a wild card spot after a bumpy start? Jeff Marek mentioned on Hockey Night in Canada that one of their defencemen, John Klingberg, was garnering interest. Might be too early for anything that significant.
Both Boston and Philadelphia are on the outside looking in right now, but not by an insurmountable amount, so any big decisions they might face aren’t necessarily imminent.
Whether actual trades will begin to flow or not, Elliotte Friedman wrote in last week’s 32 Thoughts, the trade rumours could start picking up steam now.
“It might start to pick up now,” Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said Tuesday on the Jeff Marek Show. “You’re starting to hear more names that might be available. For us specifically it’s been hard to identify what we actually need because we’ve had injured players out…we’re still working out what are we identifying that we might need for the rest of the year. I’m assuming there are other teams doing the same thing. It might take a little longer for the trade market to open up than normal.”
Trade rumours give the most ardent of us armchair GMs something to debate and hypothetical deals to break down. So, as we begin to hear more in the rumour mill, here is some of the latest from around the league.
Jake DeBrusk requests trade out of Boston
Three years ago DeBrusk scored 27 goals for the Bruins and the plan appeared to be for him to become a key secondary scoring option to support the big line. DeBrusk followed up his career year with a 19-goal campaign and then had a very cold start to the shortened 2021 season. Through 26 games the left winger had just four goals and so the Bruins, looking to compete for the Cup, acquired another left winger, Taylor Hall, at the trade deadline.
That trade and the ensuing contract extension spoke volumes of where DeBrusk was at with the team.
This season, DeBrusk has started with three goals in 18 games and was made a healthy scratch in Sunday’s game against Vancouver. It was reported this week that DeBrusk had asked for a trade out of Boston.
“I believe there was a trade request in the summer too now,” Elliotte Friedman said on the Jeff Marek Show Tuesday. “The Bruins looked around but didn’t find anything they…
Read More: Is the NHL trade market about to heat up?