The trade deadline for the 2023-24 NHL season is just over one week away and teams have already started to make moves.
The Vancouver Canucks added Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov from the Calgary Flames earlier in the season and Alberta’s second team continued to sell off pieces on Wednesday when defenceman Chris Tanev was dealt to the Dallas Stars. Days after the Canucks acquired Lindholm, the Winnipeg Jets jumped out and acquired Sean Monahan to add depth up the middle.
Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said that he has “a lot of irons in the fire” and that he’s talking to other general managers “on a regular basis,” so it’s anybody’s guess what avenue the team will take in order to gear up for the playoffs. There’s been speculation that the Oilers will prioritize adding a forward, though a right-handed defender and a veteran goaltender have also been discussed as areas of need.
With Lindholm, Monahan, and Tanev off the market, the top trade targets left available are defencemen Noah Hanifin and Sean Walker. The top forwards available are Pittsburgh Penguins wingers Reilly Smith and Jake Guentzel, leaving Adam Henrique of the Anaheim Ducks as the best option for a team seeking a centre.
According to Frank Seravalli, the Penguins are getting more calls about Smith than they have about Guentzel despite the fact the former still has one more year left on his contract at $5 million and the latter is the better player. Guentzel has been on the Long-Term Injured Reserve for a couple of weeks now and will be out through the March 8 trade deadline, though Seravalli noted that teams “don’t believe his value will be damaged by the time missed.”
It’s difficult to say what the Penguins will be able to net for those two wingers, but Seravalli did note that the Ducks are reportedly looking for second- and third-round picks, plus another third-round pick to retain half of Henrique’s salary. The 34-year-old has 16 goals and 38 points through 57 games, a salary cap hit of $5.825 million, and will be a free agent at the end of the season.
Being pressed right up against the salary cap ceiling, the Oilers would very likely need to add a third team to the trade in order to fit Henrique onto their roster. The Chris Tanev trade on Wednesday saw the New Jersey Devils get themselves a fourth-round pick in order to retain another 50 percent of the defender’s salary before he got to the Dallas Stars at 75 percent of his $4.5 million cap number.
The Oilers have their first and second-round draft picks this year, but their third-round pick was moved to the Arizona Coyotes to dump Zack Kassian’s contract, and their fourth-round pick was moved in last year’s Mattias Elholm trade. They have all of their draft picks in 2025 other than their second-round selection, which was also moved in the aforementioned Kassian deal.
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