It's not until March 8 but the chatter is picking up. Last year was a pretty wild rumor mill and trade season, we'll see if it was an outlier or a shifting landscape.
The Athletic has their big board updated:
https://theathletic.com/5208791/2024/01/18/nhl-trade-board-zegras-tarsenko-markstrom/
Some interesting names on there, curious to see what happens. Guentzel is a fascinating one to me. Pending UFA, 29 years old. Pittsburgh missed the playoffs by a couple of points last season and have been hovering around the final spots this season. Trading Guentzel would get them some much needed future assets but it also could be seen as throwing in the towel and that could be a hard sell to Crosby, Malkin and Letang.
I don't expect the Bruins to be very active around the top of this list given the lack of trade assets but they'll probably be linked to 2 of the bigger fish this cycle, pending Calgary UFA's Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. Lindholm is a Bergeron-lite center with a few Selke nominations on his resume. Hanifin is a LHD, potentially their white whale. The reporting at the time was they wanted to package the 3 consectuive 1st round picks in 2015 to move up to draft Hanifin. So whether they are interested or not they are probably going to be linked to both. Lindholm does not have trade protection, Hanifin has a 8 team no-list. An extemded Hanifin intrigues me. He's only 26, is from Boston, plays 20 minutes a night and the Bruins are probably losing Grzelyck and Forbort after the year so there's a long-term fit. I'd imagine a Hanifin trade would look something like the Hampus Lindholm trade, and I'm not sure the Bruins can deal another 1st and two 2nds plus any players going back. We'll see though, maybe they get creative.
There's been some reporting that they are poking around some middle six scoring wingers so from that list it's guys like Tarasenko, Duclair, Reilly Smith, Dom Kubalik. I think it's more likely they grab one of these guys for a 2025 3rd or something.
The Athletic has their big board updated:
https://theathletic.com/5208791/2024/01/18/nhl-trade-board-zegras-tarsenko-markstrom/
Some interesting names on there, curious to see what happens. Guentzel is a fascinating one to me. Pending UFA, 29 years old. Pittsburgh missed the playoffs by a couple of points last season and have been hovering around the final spots this season. Trading Guentzel would get them some much needed future assets but it also could be seen as throwing in the towel and that could be a hard sell to Crosby, Malkin and Letang.
I don't expect the Bruins to be very active around the top of this list given the lack of trade assets but they'll probably be linked to 2 of the bigger fish this cycle, pending Calgary UFA's Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. Lindholm is a Bergeron-lite center with a few Selke nominations on his resume. Hanifin is a LHD, potentially their white whale. The reporting at the time was they wanted to package the 3 consectuive 1st round picks in 2015 to move up to draft Hanifin. So whether they are interested or not they are probably going to be linked to both. Lindholm does not have trade protection, Hanifin has a 8 team no-list. An extemded Hanifin intrigues me. He's only 26, is from Boston, plays 20 minutes a night and the Bruins are probably losing Grzelyck and Forbort after the year so there's a long-term fit. I'd imagine a Hanifin trade would look something like the Hampus Lindholm trade, and I'm not sure the Bruins can deal another 1st and two 2nds plus any players going back. We'll see though, maybe they get creative.
There's been some reporting that they are poking around some middle six scoring wingers so from that list it's guys like Tarasenko, Duclair, Reilly Smith, Dom Kubalik. I think it's more likely they grab one of these guys for a 2025 3rd or something.