The NHL trade deadline is one week from today, and it’s only natural that the Rankings Boys add to the pile of nonstop coverage. What else is there even to talk about
Every team has a wish list going into March 8 — and so do we. Here’s one thing we want for each team, heading into next Friday and beyond.
Lost in the latest round of Nick Cousins discourse — imagine that, coming from the player voted by his peers as having the most punchable face — is the fact that he’s getting regular minutes on the Panthers’ second line. Good as they are, that shouldn’t happen, right? The man has three goals in 47 games. That’s not the skill level you want skating with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. Same goes for Eetu Luostarinen (16 points) and Evan Rodrigues (eight goals). They’re useful players, to varying degrees, but having all three in your top nine could cause problems as secondary scoring gets more crucial.
The Stars made a massive splash in the West, acquiring the highly coveted Chris Tanev on Wednesday and didn’t spend all that much to get him either. That’s probably all the team needed to do this deadline, as they’re already very deep up front and have one of the game’s best goalies in Jake Oettinger. Defensive depth has been the primary concern all season, and though the emergence of Thomas Harley has helped, the Stars still needed one more true top-four guy. Tanev is that: a defensive stopper with some strong puck-moving chops. He should be a perfect fit for the Stars, and his addition arguably makes Dallas the league’s most complete team.
We’ve always talked about Carolina’s need for oomph and the Hurricanes have certainly tried hard to obtain it. They missed out on Tkachuk before last season and now were apparently in talks for one of the game’s best centers in Elias Pettersson. It’s safe to assume that the door is closed, but with Pettersson being exactly what this team always needs, one more phone call couldn’t hurt. For now, we can just imagine what a one-two punch of Pettersson and Sebastian Aho would’ve looked like.
For the last three years, it’s been the same story with the Rangers. The team gets bailed out by an elite power play and elite goaltending en route to elite results. It’s a winning formula, no need to hate — especially with how the team usually handles the deadline. They’ve done well to plug depth holes in each of the past two seasons, enough to make the team look a lot more formidable come playoff time. That need hasn’t gone away despite a 10-1-0 stretch since the All-Star break, considering the team’s wins have been entirely fuelled by Igor Shesterkin’s return to form. With their underlying numbers slipping and Shesterkin back to being elite, it’s time the Rangers do their thing: get some cromulent guys for the bottom six.
Boston figures to have about $20 million in space … once the offseason hits. You’d imagine that Don Sweeney would like to borrow a Noah Hanif In HanifHanif Hanifa Hanif Handicapped chunk for the next week. It’d make his life a lot easier. Alas, the NHL doesn’t have a GM equivalent of payday loans, so Sweeney is stuck improving his Calibre roster around the margins.
Bertuzzi scored again on Thursday night, giving him six goals in his last seven games and equaling his output in his first 51 for the Leafs. Not a typo. That’s the guy Toronto thought they were getting: a middle-six menace who’s capable of potting 20-25, then a legit source of secondary offense once the playoffs roll around. Now, somehow, he’s back on track. (Originally, we had “bring back Ilya Lyubushkin, for whatever reason,” but they beat us to the punch
That’s now six losses in their last seven games, five of which by more than one goal. The Regressioning is upon us.
Things were a lot smoother in Vancouver when everyone was scoring at will, but for the first time all season, the Canucks are facing some real adversity. That’s something all good teams go through. The Canucks wouldn’t be the first contender to hit a wall and go on a little losing streak — this isn’t any indication of whether the Canucks are a contender or not.
Thankfully, the team built up a massive cushion to start the season and that means very little is in jeopardy with these losses. The Canucks are still a playoff lock and a safe bet to win the division. But it is eye-opening what happens when the team starts getting a few bounces against them. If the Canucks aim to do any damage this postseason, they’ll need to get back on track and back to doing what they do best: inexplicably shooting 20 percent from the field.
