Deadline Sellers
Its roughly 2 weeks away from the trade deadline and it is time to start weeding out the buyers from the sellers. In the West the playoff race isnt as tight as the East. St.Louis is 8 points out of 8th place which is very tough to come back from in 2 weeks which in my resoning makes them sellers.
So here is a list of those 4 teams UFAs that have trade value
LA Kings
Rob Blake, Ladislav Nagy(injured), Brian Willsie, Brad Stuart, Jaroslav Modry and JS Aubin.
Regarding the Kings i think it is safe to say Blake will be dealt. The Kings have 3 defencemen who are at the end of their contracts and they all have trade value, so if any team needs defensive depth they should callup the Kings. The Kings should be able to stock up with several picks and prospects.
Chicago Blakchawks
Martin Lapointe, Jason Williams(out for season i believe), Yannick Perrault, Andrei Zyuzin and Patrick Lalime. Tuomo Ruutu is a RFA and could possibly be dealt and also Nikolai Khabibulin although is not a UFA has been rumored to be available.
Chicagos UFAs wont bring them much in return, Perreault might be dealt to a team needing a faceoff specialist. The only way Chicago gets picks and prospects is if they deal their starting goaltender or if they give up on a dissapointing Tuomo Ruutu.
Edmonton Oilers
Geoff Sanderson and Marty Reasoner. They have RFAs that could possibly be available that include Joni Pitkanen who is talented but is known as somewhat of a selfish cancer and there is also Jarret Stoll who has been mentionned several times as trade bait.
It doesnt look like Edmonton will be very active come deadline day unless they pull a blockbuster with some of their young players (Pitkanen/Stoll).
St. Louis
Martin Rucinsky(fresh OFF the IR), Barret Jackman, Bryce Salvador, Matt Walker.
The Blues dont have much to offer that will give them a return higher then a 3rd or 4th round pick. Only teams looking for depth 6th/7th defencemen will trade with them. Martin Rucinsky seems to always be dealt at the deadline so look for him to move to a team needing a third line scorer.
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Moving onto the Eastern Conference we have the Tampa Bay Lighting New York Islanders and the Toronto Maple Leafs as clear sellers. The eastern Conference is much tighter then the west so im only going to do 3 teams.
TB Lighting
Vaclav Prospal, Dan Boyle, Chris Gratton, Jan Hlavac, Andre Roy, Andreas Karlsson, Johan Holqvist. Possible trade if any takers is Brad Richards and there have been rumors that Martin St. Louis is going to Dallas (altho i doubt it goes down)
TB has a wealth of UFAs this year and they will be BIG sellers come deadline day since they are deadlast in the conference and desperatly need to retool. Hopefully they dont trade any of their big 3 and find a goaltender this off-season for goodness sakes. My guess is that this team has at least 8 picks in the first 3 rounds this draft.
NY Islanders
Miroslav Satan, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko, Trent Hunter, Josef Vasicek, Chris Simon(ha..ha..ha), Bryan Berrard, Freddy Meyer and Wade Dubielewicz.
This team has a boatload of offence on the UFA front and could possibly be big sellers but this team has JUST retooled from last season and i cant see them restarting all over again for the second year in a row. Look for maybe just half of that list of UFAs to hit the market. If it was my guess id say Mike Comrie, Josef Vasicek and Ruslan Fedotenko go. The player i would most like to see go to a contender however is the devil himself Miro SATAN!! lol
And Finnally my favorite team (who needs to trade away most of its players but wont)
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Mats Sundin (NTC) and thats it… the entire team is pretty much signed for next year excluding RFAs
So if Mats decides that hell waive his NTC to go to Detroit then the leafs are looking a little better and it might snowball a few trades. I believe Chad Kilger and Hal Gill, altho still having another year on their contracts are relatively cheap and could be moved as a depth trade to a contender. Andrew Raycroft WILL NOT be traded, nobody wants him, hell be bought out in the summer. One of Kubina, Kaberle and McCabe NEEDS to be traded. The team cannot have 15 million tied up with 3 defenceman (Kaberle is the only player worthy of his contract). Even if its Kaberle who is the casualty, one of the 3 needs to be moved and hopefully my wish comes true in 2 weeks. Finally i believe that one, possibly 2 of Steen, Stajan, Wellwood, White and Colaiacovo will be packaged with one of the 3 defenceman or Sundin since the receiving team needs something to balance eigther the big defensive contract or to juice up a return that Mats Sundin could bring.
So those are my opinions, this year is tight and it doesnt seem like there will be more then 8 sellers at the most. I believe another team in the East will fallout of contention, my guess is Florida. But it is too early to tell for now.
Happy Deadline Day! (in advance) and feel free to argue any of my points, i love to debate 😉