Buy, Sell Or Stand: What 10 NHL Teams Should Do With Trade Deadline Approaching

NHL trade deadline season kicked off when the Carolina Hurricanes acquired Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in a Friday night megadeal.

It was one of the biggest in-season trades in the salary cap era, and it will likely cause a trickle-down effect as NHL teams look to make some moves before the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Because of the tight standings, particularly in the Eastern Conference, there have been questions about who the sellers are. While some squads, such as Chicago, San Jose and Nashville, are well entrenched in seller mode, quite a few still have a big decision to make.

To sell or not to sell? That is the question for these 10 squads.

Montreal Canadiens

Notable Pending UFAs: David Savard (D), Christian Dvorak (C/W), Joel Armia (RW), Jake Evans (C)

Coming into the season, there was hope the Canadiens would take a step toward playing meaningful games down the stretch. Not only have they done that, but they look like a real threat to make the playoffs as a wild-card team. 

Adding Lane Hutson to their blueline has been a tremendous help. Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki have established themselves as true top-line talents.

That said, they are still a ways away from being truly competitive.

Selling everyone would be sending the wrong message to the group. The Habs should just look to trade the players who can give them the most value. Would someone pay a first-round pick for David Savard? Deal. Is another team desperately looking for depth and looking to overpay for Dvorak or Armia? Sure. The Habs shouldn’t be buyers, but they shouldn’t be too eager to sell either, showing this group they have faith in them.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Notable Pending UFAs: Sean Kuraly (C/W), Mathieu Olivier (RW), Justin Danforth (RW), James van Riemsdyk (LW), Ivan Provorov (D), Dante Fabbro (D), Jack Johnson (D)

The NHL’s darling team of 2025 has been playing incredible hockey lately. They have gone 7-2-1 in their last 10 games and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings last week.

The Blue Jackets have the third-best record at home in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been getting some amazing performances from their young talents, such as Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko, as well as strong years from veterans Sean Monahan and Zach Werenski.

Aside from finishing fourth overall in 2016-17, the Blue Jackets have been middle of the pack at best. In a year like this, when they're exceeding expectations, management should try to show faith in their group. 

With that said, navigating their rebuild is still important. Ivan Provorov is a valuable trade chip, and van Riemsdyk and Kuraly could be pieces other teams want. Trading those guys could help the future, but showing faith in the group by re-signing a guy like Olivier could be the perfect compromise.

Related: Should The Columbus Blue Jackets Push For The Playoffs By Trading For Upgrades?

Ottawa Senators

Notable Pending UFAs: Claude Giroux (RW), Nick Cousins (W/C), Adam Gaudette (W/C), Travis Hamonic (D), Anton Forsberg (G)

The Senators are now third in the Atlantic Division after being fourth in the race for two wild-cards on Jan. 23. They need to pull away from the mushy middle.

Brady Tkachuk is in his prime. Tim Stutzle and Jake Sanderson are approaching their primes. They have a Vezina-caliber netminder in Linus Ullmark, who's dealt with multiple injuries this season. The rebuild was “over” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we still haven't seen Ottawa in the playoffs yet since 2017.

This one is simple: the Senators can’t be sellers. Go get a defenseman to help stabilize the back end. Look at which veteran centers are available and see if you can add some experience down the middle. It’s on the management to make a difference and not look at which UFA’s they can send out of the door if they slump again.

Related: Do The Ottawa Senators Need Help To Win The Wild-Card Battle?

Vancouver Canucks

Notable Pending UFAs: Brock Boeser (RW), Pius Suter (C), Phillip Di Giuseppe (LW), Derek Forbort (D), Noah Juulsen (D), Kevin Lankinen (G)

This might be controversial, but with the turmoil the Canucks are going through and the likely exit of J.T. Miller or Elias Pettersson, being a seller for this season before reloading in the summer makes some sense.

The rumors about Pettersson or Miller change minute by minute, and the team will likely lose whatever deal they make because they're trading them at their low points.

Vancouver has some interesting UFAs, such as Boeser, who could net a solid return if healthy. If the Canucks determine they won't re-sign Boeser, whether it's the player's choice or the team's, they should make a move.

Suter or Lankinen could be nice pieces for a team looking to bolster its bottom-six or back-up goalie situation. Finding a way to move Miller and build around Pettersson up front would be ideal. But whoever they move, they must get value back in whatever way they can.

Related: NHL Rumor Roundup: The Latest On Elias Pettersson And J.T. Miller

Detroit Red Wings

Notable Pending UFAs: Patrick Kane (RW), Christian Fischer (RW), Jeff Petry (D), Alex Lyon (G)

The Red Wings are glued to the mushy middle. They have many aging veterans who play pivotal roles, and they have blocked many of their young, upcoming prospects by signing replacement-level veterans to multi-year deals. Lucas Raymond has emerged as their best all-around forward and given them some much-needed punch up front, and Moritz Seider has become a true No. 1 on the back end.

All things considered, this team likely can't be a true seller. If things fall apart as the deadline nears and they fall out of the race, maybe they can look at moving Petry or Lyon. There’s a possibility that Kane would want to move on to a contender. But this team has invested too much into being a competitive playoff team to commit to selling until the wheels fully fall off.

Philadelphia Flyers

Notable Pending UFA: Erik Johnson (D)

The Flyers don’t really have much to sell. There have been rumors the team might be interested in moving Rasmus Ristolainen, who has found a new lease on life with the Flyers. Aside from him, the team has been kind of quiet when it comes to trade deadlines. They only have one UFA of note in Erik Johnson who isn’t even a regular for the squad.

There isn’t much of a decision to be made for the Flyers. If someone wants to pay a heavy price for Ristolainen or a guy like Scott Laughton, you make the deal. Otherwise, you stand pat, let this group develop and continue to lean on young talent like Matvei Michkov going forward.

Related: Quietly, Travis Konecny On Pace To Become Flyers' Best-Ever Goal-Scorer

New York Rangers

Notable Pending UFAs: Reilly Smith (RW), Jimmy Vesey (LW), Ryan Lindgren (D), Jonathan Quick (G)

The Rangers have already been busy this year, sending captain Jacob Trouba and 2019 second-overall pick Kaapo Kakko out the door for a modest return at best. There has also been talk about moving other pivotal pieces of the squad, such as Chris Kreider and Ryan Lindgren. The Rangers have so much going on.

They have also seemingly righted the ship recently, going 7-0-3 in their last 10 games. But they are still very much in limbo about where they are going this season.

The Rangers could make more moves, but they could be hockey moves that bring in talent to help this team get back on track for the short and long term. They certainly aren’t traditional sellers, but they won’t be just buying rentals, either.

Boston Bruins

Notable Pending UFAs: Brad Marchand (LW), Trent Frederic (C), Vinni Lettieri (C/W), Justin Brazeau (RW), Parker Wotherspoon (D)

There haven’t been many trade deadlines over the last decade when we’ve wondered about the Bruins' intentions. They’ve been among the NHL’s best teams, and they are always looking to buy.

The team has faltered this year as veterans age, and their lack of a prospect pool is coming back to bite them. The Bruins may not be buying this year at all.

Boston has had a mediocre season, going 25-20-6 and sitting in the first wild-card spot. They have had issues with scoring goals, and they haven’t been great at keeping the puck out of the net.

The Bruins aren’t trading Marchand, but there could be some real interest in depth forwards as pieces that could help on a playoff run. They should realize where they’re at and send some of those guys out of town for futures.

In all likelihood, the Bruins stand pat and try to stay in the playoff hunt until the very end because that’s just what they do.

Calgary Flames

Notable Pending UFAs: Andrei Kuzmenko (LW), Anthony Mantha (RW), Kevin Rooney (C), Tyson Barrie (D), Joel Hanley (D), Dan Vladar (G)

The Flames have been in and around the playoff picture all season, and everyone seems to be waiting for them to fall off. To this point, they haven’t, and they are managing to hold the Vancouver Canucks off for the final wild-card spot.

Flames center Nazem Kadri told The Hockey News' Carol Schram he wants the team to buy, because one or two more pieces could help the team a lot in its push.

Related: 'I Think That's The Goal': Nazem Kadri Explains Why The Calgary Flames Should Buy, Not Sell

With that said, the Flames are among the lower-scoring clubs, and they’ve been relying on stellar goaltending from rookie Dustin Wolf. Coming into the year, the Flames seemed to know what they were, and then they overperformed. They need to remember who they are and commit to the rebuild.

Whether they want to trade Kadri, who has four years left on his contract after this one and is unlikely to leave, or stick to dealing UFAs, such as Kuzmenko or Hanley, they should keep an eye on the future. Go get a couple of prospects and some draft picks, and look to keep building around this core group of young players coming up.

St. Louis Blues

Notable Pending UFAs: Radek Faksa (C), Ryan Suter (D)

The Blues don’t have much to sell but seem willing to make moves if something arises. Maybe someone takes on Suter as he tries to win the Stanley Cup. Could someone see Faksa as valuable depth? What about Mathieu Joseph, who could be a really interesting bottom-six piece with an extra year on his deal?

The Blues are doing a pretty solid job of retooling on the fly, and adding Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg in the off-season certainly helped with that. Still, they need to continue adding young pieces and hope one of them hits big over the next couple of years.

Suter, Faksa and some of the other vets with a year or two left on their deals won’t be around for the contention window, so get what you can for them now.

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