{"id":460093,"date":"2026-02-07T17:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460093\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:06:08","slug":"nhl-rumor-mill-february-7-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460093\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumor Mill \u2013 February 7, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Olympic roster freeze is in effect, but that hasn\u2019t stopped the trade speculation. Check out the latest on the Canucks, Senators, and Blackhawks in today\u2019s NHL Rumor Mill.<\/p>\n<p>COULD THE CANUCKS TRADE CONOR GARLAND?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7019710\/2026\/02\/04\/vancouver-canucks-trade-deadline-2026-olympics-roster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">THE ATHLETIC<\/a>: Thomas Drance reported the <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/vancouver-canucks\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> had been active in trade talks leading up to the implementation of the current Olympic roster roster (Feb. 4 \u2013 22). However, the club didn\u2019t feel any pressure to make a move before then.<\/p>\n<p>The Canucks won\u2019t execute a trade unless their price is met for one of their pending unrestricted free agents. They include <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/evander-kane\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Evander Kane<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/teddy-blueger\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Teddy Blueger<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/david-kampf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">David Kampf<\/a>, or one of their veterans with term remaining on their contracts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-105562\" class=\"wp-image-105562 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Garland-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"153\" height=\"218\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 153px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 153\/218;\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-105562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland (NHL Images)<\/p>\n<p>Of the latter group, Drance thinks <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/conor-garland\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Conor Garland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/brock-boeser\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brock Boeser<\/a> should be considered the most likely who could be realistically traded by March 6. However, the Canucks aren\u2019t proactively pursuing deals to move one of them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7019710\/2026\/02\/04\/vancouver-canucks-trade-deadline-2026-olympics-roster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">THE PROVINCE<\/a>: Paul Chapman believes the biggest trade question facing the Canucks is whether they\u2019ll move Garland at the deadline. The 29-year-old forward lacks no-trade protection on his current contract, but his new deal ($6 million annually with a full no-movement clause) begins on July 1.<\/p>\n<p>Chapman indicated that teams like Garland\u2019s style of play. However, they aren\u2019t fond of the six-year term on his next contract.<\/p>\n<p>SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: Garland seems more likely to be moved than Boeser, who is in the first year of a seven-year contract with an average annual value of $7.25 million with a full no-movement clause. However, that six-year deal could scare off contenders with limited cap space for next season.<\/p>\n<p>SENATORS TO CONSIDER THEIR OPTIONS DURING THE OLYMPIC BREAK<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ottawasun.com\/ottawa-senators\/ottawa-senators-nhl-roster-freeze\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OTTAWA SUN:<\/a> Bruce Garrioch reports league executives claim Senators general manager Steve Staios continues to seek a right-shot, top-four defenseman and a top-six winger.<\/p>\n<p>Acquiring a right-shot defenseman and a scoring winger are difficult because of the asking prices and the number of teams seeking them. The list of sellers is short, with the Canucks, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/st-louis-blues\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">St. Louis Blues<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/calgary-flames\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Calgary Flames<\/a> in the Western Conference, and only the <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/new-york-rangers\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Rangers<\/a> thus far in the East.<\/p>\n<p>Garrioch claimed the Senators have spoken with the Flames about defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/mackenzie-weegar\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MacKenzie Weegar<\/a>. It\u2019s believed they\u2019d want a second-round pick and a top prospect in return. The <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/detroit-red-wings\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Detroit Red Wings<\/a> could also be pursuing Weegar.<\/p>\n<p>The Senators are hoping to string some wins together coming out of the Olympic break to close the gap on the teams they\u2019re chasing in the Eastern Conference playoff race. However, they could go from buyers to sellers if they fail to gain ground in the standings, meaning they\u2019ll face decisions about pending UFAs such as <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/claude-giroux\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Claude Giroux<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/nick-cousins\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Cousins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/david-perron\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">David Perron<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/lars-eller\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lars Eller<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/nick-jensen\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Jensen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: Weegar, 32, is signed through 2030-31 with an AAV of $6.25 million and a full no-trade clause. Assuming he\u2019s willing to move, the Flames can afford to wait patiently for someone to meet their asking price, which could be higher than what Garrioch cited if enough teams get into the bidding. If they don\u2019t find any suitable offers by March 6, they\u2019ll wait until the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>BLACHAWKS TRADE CANDIDATES<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7014108\/2026\/02\/02\/blackhawks-trade-board-mikheyev-murphy-grzelcyk-dickinson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">THE ATHLETIC<\/a>: Scott Powers, Mark Lazerus, and Chris Johnston examined which <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/chicago-blackhawks\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> players could be moved by the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/connor-murphy\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Connor Murphy<\/a> is considered their best trade chip. He\u2019s eligible for unrestricted free-agent status on July 1 with an affordable $4.4 million cap hit. While the Blackhawks don\u2019t need to trade him, he has value as an experienced defenseman with a right-hand shot.<\/p>\n<p>Like Murphy, <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/jason-dickinson\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jason Dickinson<\/a> is UFA-eligible with a cost-effective cap hit ($4.25 million). He can fill a third or fourth-line center role on a playoff team.<\/p>\n<p>Winger <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/ilya-mikheyev\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ilya Mikheyev<\/a>, left-shot defenseman <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/matt-grzelcyk\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matt Grzelcyk<\/a>, and team captain <a href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/nick-foligno\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nick Foligno<\/a> could also become trade candidates. They\u2019re also UFA-eligible players with affordable cap hits.<\/p>\n<p>SPECTOR\u2019S NOTE: Murphy would have the best value in the trade market, but he\u2019s also made no secret of his desire to stay in Chicago. The Blackhawks could trade him and attempt to bring him back this summer as a free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Olympic roster freeze is in effect, but that hasn\u2019t stopped the trade speculation. Check out the latest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-460093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460093","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=460093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}