{"id":355750,"date":"2025-12-19T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355750\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:37:13","slug":"which-teams-will-do-some-last-minute-nhl-trade-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355750\/","title":{"rendered":"Which teams will do some last-minute NHL trade shopping?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Light newsletter\u00a0\ud83c\udfd2\u00a0| This is\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s\u00a0hockey\u00a0newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning, hockey folks. If you\u2019re feeling festive, it\u2019s time to break out your Claude Noel jersey, put some Conor Garland on the tree and hope Morgan Frost brings Garth Snow next week.<\/p>\n

No, I do not apologize \u2026 \ud83c\udf85\ud83c\udffc\ud83c\udf81<\/p>\n

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\n (Kelsea Petersen \/ The Athletic; Cameron Bartlett, Ethan Cairns and Jason Mowry \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Big Board breakdown with Chris Johnston<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s the big day for the NHL\u2019s Christmas roster freeze, which hits at midnight and goes until Dec. 28. Will anything happen before that deadline?<\/p>\n

Well, last Friday was sure fun<\/a>, and there\u2019s a growing malaise settling in for a number of teams that have struggled to find their way of late. (More on that group a little later.)<\/p>\n

Our Chris Johnston published his latest trade board<\/a> this week, and it\u2019s full of interesting names from some of those teams, several of which feel like they\u2019re going to be in power positions as the buyers come calling.<\/p>\n

Here is Chris\u2019 top 10 as we approach the holiday break:<\/p>\n

Rasmus Andersson, Calgary
\nKiefer Sherwood, Vancouver
\nAlex Tuch, Buffalo
\nBlake Coleman, Calgary
\nSteven Stamkos, Nashville
\nOndrej Palat, New Jersey
\nJustin Faulk, St. Louis
\nJordan Binnington, St. Louis
\nPhillip Danault, Los Angeles
\nMason Marchment, Seattle<\/p>\n

Like I said, some pretty interesting names. And there are 22 more on the full board<\/a>, which will continue to grow as we get closer to the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

I checked in with CJ yesterday for more thoughts on his list and some of what he\u2019s hearing from around the league right now.<\/p>\n

Chris, which team or teams do you think are about to be particularly aggressive on the trade front after Edmonton, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Vancouver got us going last week?<\/p>\n

CJ: \u201cI\u2019m keeping an eye on the New Jersey Devils. They weren\u2019t able to outbid Minnesota for Quinn Hughes and have also been out in the market looking for upgrades to their top-six forward group. It\u2019s been tough sledding (7-10-0) since Jack Hughes went down with his hand injury<\/a>, and, even with Hughes working his way towards a return, there seems to be some urgency coming from the Devils front office.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the most surprising\/intriguing name to land on the board this time around?<\/p>\n

CJ: \u201cAlex Tuch. He could either be No. 1 when we refresh things in January or off the list entirely. New GM Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen sounded pretty determined<\/a> to get Tuch signed to an extension after taking over the Sabres GM job, but it\u2019s probably going to take a monster contract to make it happen. There are plenty of teams eager to engage on Tuch if he formally hits the trade market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, with the standings<\/a> still so bunched up, how many realistic sellers are there?<\/p>\n

CJ: \u201cAt this stage, Vancouver is arguably the only true seller. Before the Hughes trade, the Canucks indicated a willingness to engage in trade discussions, particularly as it pertained to their pending free agents. In saying that, I think other teams will get there in the new year. Calgary, Nashville and St. Louis stand out as the next wave of sellers, which is why they are well-represented on the Big Board. Seattle could join them, too, if the Kraken don\u2019t pull out of their current nosedive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good stuff from Chris, as usual. You can find his latest columns here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bonus reads:<\/p>\n

Sabres writer Matt Fairburn has a good take on the Tuch situation<\/a>, ranking it as the No. 1 piece of business for Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen to deal with.
\nThe Oilers\u2019 big trade acquisition, netminder Tristan Jarry, left last night\u2019s win<\/a> over Boston with an injury. That one could hurt.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\n John Tavares. (Carmen Mandato \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf84 MirTrivia, Xmas Edition<\/p>\n

Watching the Maple Leafs labor through yet another ugly loss last night (4-0 to the Capitals in Washington), it occurred to me their power play is nearing historically awful levels<\/a>. They\u2019re at just 10 percent over the last 16 games and getting close to last (31st) on the year, despite having some of the biggest offensive stars in the league. The heat is definitely now on Toronto\u2019s coaching staff.<\/p>\n

But what is rock bottom for a power play in the NHL?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Question 1: Which team has had the worst man advantage in the NHL\u2019s salary cap era, and how bad was it?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Question 2: Which team holds the all-time record for most putrid PP over a season? (Both teams need to have played at least 80 games.)<\/p>\n

Answers at the bottom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Kraken coach Lane Lambert. (Steph Chambers \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Are contenders pushing out pretenders?<\/p>\n

There have been a lot of feel-good surprise stories through the first 30-odd games of this NHL season, but it does seem like things are normalizing over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

Consider these three teams that unexpectedly got off to strong starts but are now flailing in the standings:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Seattle Kraken, 1-9-1 in the last 11 after blowing last night\u2019s lead against the Flames, making them the worst team in the NHL over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chicago Blackhawks, 3-10-2 in the last 15 after getting thumped by Montreal last night. Connor Bedard\u2019s injury<\/a> obviously hurts, as the Blackhawks are averaging just two goals a game right now, last in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pittsburgh Penguins, seven losses in a row. Trading away Jarry isn\u2019t going to help matters, but it always felt like a matter of time before the Penguins faded after an admirable 14-7-5 run to start the year.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll also give honorable mentions to the Utah Mammoth and Winnipeg Jets, who have had some really tough stretches of late<\/a>. Unlike the three clubs above, however, they\u2019ve still got some life in them, if only because they seem to have the talent to pull out of their tailspins. Let\u2019s face it, Connor Hellebuyck can lift any team up.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the equation, some teams that have started playing really well the past month include the Hughes-infused Wild, Capitals, Flames (?!) and Panthers.<\/p>\n

We believe three of those have some staying power \u2026 and suddenly 11 or 12 of the 16 teams in playoff position are about what we expected.<\/p>\n

Hang in there, Islanders and Sharks!<\/p>\n

Coast to Coast<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfd2 In this week\u2019s Power Rankings, the guys get into the holiday spirit and assign Christmas song lyrics<\/a> to each team.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udce3 The rise of Quinn Hughes: Great read from Mike Russo and Joe Smith<\/a>, who are all over the Quinnesota Wild era so far.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 Peter Baugh caught up with red-hot Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>, who is having a ridiculous season at age 30, driving the Avalanche to a historic 24-2-7 start and plenty of Hart Trophy talk.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd47 A deep dive for numbers nerds on who should be on the Olympic rosters for Team Canada<\/a> and Team USA<\/a>? Sign us up.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd14 Ranking the PWHL\u2019s potential next expansion markets<\/a>, after successful launches of Seattle and Vancouver this season.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfb On \u201cThe Athletic Hockey Show,\u201d Hailey Salvian and Sean Gentille discuss how the Wild\u2019s trade for Hughes will affect the Western Conference<\/a> and yet another ownership change for the Penguins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Paul Ysebaert. (Robert Laberge \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

MirTrivia answer<\/p>\n

The Leafs\u2019 horri-awful 14 percent power play still has a ways to fall to catch the true bottom feeders, but they\u2019re at least starting to come into view.<\/p>\n

The worst power play in the NHL\u2019s cap era, which began in 2005-06, was the 2013-14 Florida Panthers, who somehow went 10 percent over a full season when up a man. They scored just 27 PP goals and allowed six against, for a goal differential of just 0.25 per game. Woof.<\/p>\n

The worst ever, though, at least for the years NHL.com publishes the data? It\u2019s the 1997-98 Tampa Bay Lightning, who scored on just 9.3 percent of their PPs as part of a horrific 44-point season (17-55-10).<\/p>\n

Tampa finished last in the NHL by a mile that season, 19 points behind the next worst team, and Paul Ysebaert (pictured above) led them in scoring with just 40 points. They then drafted Vincent Lecavalier first that summer, and six years later, they won their first Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

How\u2019s that for a (literal) silver lining? Something tells me that\u2019s not how it\u2019s going to go for Toronto.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Red Light?\u00a0Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Light newsletter\u00a0\ud83c\udfd2\u00a0| This is\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s\u00a0hockey\u00a0newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive Red Light directly in your inbox. Good morning, hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-355750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}