We have now passed the main stage of the NHL off-season. The draft, as well as the first few days of free agency, are behind us. While most teams have their roster plans set in stone, others are still trying to figure things out. In particular, the trade market has some very intriguing options for teams looking to shake things up. With a few big names who’s future is uncertain, let’s take a guess on which players could be traded, but also which player will remain with their team for at least the start of the season.
Marco Rossi, Trade
In his 2nd full season as an NHLer, Wild forward Marco Rossi scored 24 goals and 60 points in a full 82-game season. This was despite playing bottom six minutes for portions of the season. After a rough postseason, Rossi requested a trade out of Minnesota, likely due to disagreements over his next contract, as well as his future role within the organization. While the team still hopes to keep him, they have been fielding trade offers from around the league. Before the draft, the Vancouver Canucks offered the Wild their 1st round pick (15th overall) plus a player in exchange for Rossi, which got rejected, so the price for the 23-year-old is high.
Rasmus Andersson, Stay
The Flames have recently held contract extension talks with star defenseman Rasmus Andersson, but the two sides remain far apart on a deal. Over the last year, the Flames fielded trade calls for Andersson, but ultimately kept him as the Flames ended up in the playoff race, missing the postseason via tiebreaker. It’s more than likely Calgary holds onto Andersson for the start of the season, and will see how things play out before making a decision on his future. If Andersson were to be traded, Pierre LeBrun reported that his top destination would be Las Vegas, who will sorely miss Alex Pietrangelo on the blue line.
Jared McCann, Stay
After bouncing around the league for the first few years of his career, Jared McCann has found a home in Seattle, scoring at least 60 points in each of the last three seasons. Despite his efforts, the Kraken have been middle of the pack the last two seasons, missing the playoffs. With Jason Botterill taking over as General Manager, the team will have to pick a direction between trying to contend or rebuild. Because of this, McCann’s name has been thrown around in trade rumours. It’s hard to see McCann being moved before the season, with two more years of control on his contract, it would ne hard for Seattle to trade a fan favourite ever since the teams existence.
Evan Rodrigues, Trade
The Panthers were able to bring back core pieces of their Stanley Cup winning teams from the last two seasons. just before free agency began, they re-signed forwards Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, as well as defenseman Aaron Ekblad to long term extensions. This comes at a cost, as the Panthers are now over the salary cap, and will need to trade some people in order to comply with the cap. Evan Rodrigues is a solid candidate to be traded, making $3M AAV over the next two seasons. Teams looking to add another centre could take a shot on Rodrigues, and due to Florida’s cap situation, he wouldn’t cost that much in a trade.
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