{"id":434326,"date":"2026-01-26T13:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T13:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434326\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T13:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T13:16:16","slug":"nhl-trade-targets-rating-the-best-young-players-contenders-could-make-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434326\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL trade targets: Rating the best young players contenders could make available"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 NHL trade deadline is fast approaching. According to our insider Chris Johnston, the primary buyers this season are Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Vegas, with Montreal acting as a soft buyer.<\/p>\n

What follows is a seller\u2019s guide to the top young assets who could be made available by those teams. Young players in prominent roles are excluded. What\u2019s clear is that Detroit and Montreal are in the driver\u2019s seat when it comes to assets to move, but whether they want to push the chips in this season is something their management will have to determine.<\/p>\n

Tier 1: Premium young assets<\/p>\n

Michael Brandsegg-Nyg\u00e5rd, RW, Detroit Red Wings: Brandsegg-Nyg\u00e5rd is a heavy winger with good offensive skills and a great shot. He projects as a middle-six forward who coaches will love.<\/p>\n

Nate Danielson, C, Detroit Red Wings: Danielson is a quality two-way center with a legit combination of size, speed and hands. His scoring has been inconsistent, although he\u2019s been quite good at the AHL level this season.<\/p>\n

Michael Hage, C, Montreal Canadiens: Hage has been a top player this season in college and at the World Juniors. His skating and playmaking grade out at a top-six NHL level, making him a premium trade chip given he can play the middle as well.<\/p>\n

Alexander Zharovsky, RW, Montreal Canadiens: The biggest riser on the board. After being selected 34th in 2025, Zharovsky has exploded in the KHL. He\u2019s a high-end skill forward with legit tools to project into a top six.<\/p>\n

Tier 2: Strong B-level assets<\/p>\n

Carter Bear, C\/W, Detroit Red Wings: Detroit\u2019s 2025 first-round pick (13th) is a competitive winger with good feet and offensive skills and has been a prominent junior scorer with a game that should translate to the pros.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Cossa, G, Detroit Red Wings: Cossa has been a top goalie in the AHL this season. He\u2019s a huge goalie who can move, and while he\u2019s been quite inconsistent over the years, if Detroit decides to dangle one of him or Trey Augustine, the 2021 No. 15\u00a0pick\u2019s toolkit will be highly intriguing to teams.<\/p>\n

Conor Geekie, C, Tampa Bay Lightning: Geekie has been very good at the AHL level this season. He\u2019s a big, highly skilled center who can play in traffic, but his foot speed is an issue. He\u2019s the clear best trade asset that Tampa has.<\/p>\n

Eddie Genborg, LW, Detroit Red Wings: Genborg has been quite good in the SHL as an 18-year-old. He\u2019s a tall, highly physical winger whose offense has surprised even some of his biggest backers.<\/p>\n

David Reinbacher, RHD, Montreal Canadiens: I\u2019d be quite surprised to see Montreal move their No. 5 pick from 2023, but his development since then has been up and down. He\u2019s still a desirable piece as a 6-foot-2 right shot who can skate, make stops and move pucks, but the offense may not be top-end.<\/p>\n

Charlie Stramel, C, Minnesota Wild: Stramel has been one of the very best players in college this season. A big, physical center with good feet and hands, Stramel projects as a hard-to-play-against middle-six center in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Draft picks: Detroit and Montreal still have their 2026 first-round picks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Matt Savoie has been a regular player for the Edmonton Oilers this season. (Emilee Chinn \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Tier 3: B-grade assets<\/p>\n

Trey Augustine, G, Detroit Red Wings: Augustine, like Cossa, is a quality goalie prospect in the Wings system. He\u2019s been great in college and has high-end hockey sense, but his pure tools don\u2019t jump out at you.<\/p>\n

Jacob Fowler, G, Montreal Canadiens: Fowler has been excellent as a rookie pro following a great collegiate career. He\u2019s a super smart and polished goaltender, although he doesn\u2019t have truly high-end athletic traits.<\/p>\n

Matt Savoie, C\/W, Edmonton Oilers: Savoie is a worker with excellent speed and skill. He\u2019s quite small, though, and projects more as a secondary scorer in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Bradly Nadeau, RW, Carolina Hurricanes: Possessing an NHL-elite shot, Nadeau is a talented scorer who could project to help a middle six and power play one day.<\/p>\n

Ike Howard, LW, Edmonton Oilers: Howard is a talented scorer who has put up strong numbers for years, although his frame and off-puck play will be concerning for teams.<\/p>\n

Max Curran, C, Colorado Avalanche: Curran has developed quite well for the Avs and was a top player for Czechia at the recent World Juniors. He\u2019s a big pivot who can skate. His puck play is fine, but it\u2019s good enough to project to help an NHL team.<\/p>\n

Draft picks: Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Minnesota and Montreal have their 2027 first-round picks.<\/p>\n

Tier 4: Quality trade chips<\/p>\n

Trevor Connelly, LW, Vegas Golden Knights<\/p>\n

Adam Engstrom, LHD, Montreal Canadiens<\/p>\n

Max Plante, LW, Detroit Red Wings<\/p>\n

Emil Hemming, RW, Dallas Stars<\/p>\n

Ben Danford, RHD, Toronto Maple Leafs<\/p>\n

Sam O\u2019Reilly, C, Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n

Benjamin Rautiainen, LW, Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n

Draft picks: Edmonton, Dallas, Detroit, Montreal, Tampa Bay and Vegas have their 2026 second-round picks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NHL trade deadline is fast approaching. According to our insider Chris Johnston, the primary buyers this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,769,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-434326","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-fantasy-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434326","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=434326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}