Follow the latest NHL trade deadline news in The Athletic’s live blog.
We’re two weeks from the NHL trade deadline. At Power Rankings HQ, that’s come to mean a couple of important things.
The first: Dom is on vacation. How he’s managed to pull that off in consecutive years is a head-scratcher, but he deserves credit for it all the same. Use that PTO, baby!
The second: The popcorn factor has returned. Every team is graded on a 1-5 scale based solely on their potential to make the next two weeks interesting. If they’re ready to sell, great. If they’re ready to buy, great. If they’ve got high-profile players and haven’t made a decision on whether to move them, great.
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And if they’ve got none of those things, hey, feel free to ignore them. Not every team is worth your time.
Filling in for Dom this week: the great Murat Ates. That’s an upgrade for us all.
1. New York Rangers, 38-16-3
Last week: 5
Sean’s ranking: 1
Murat’s ranking: 1
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Ah, we love a well-timed, pre-deadline winning streak, don’t we, folks? It’s not just that the Rangers are really good or really hot — though they are both of those things. It’s that they have money to spend (about $3.5 million on deadline day), some glaring needs (Filip Chytil and Blake Wheeler are both out for the season) and a recent track record of buying aggressively. Chris Drury made a bunch of stuff happen last season under a tougher set of circumstances. It didn’t work out, but hey, “A” for effort. Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton is one name to watch here.
2. Florida Panthers, 37-16-4
Last week: 2
Sean’s ranking: 2
Murat’s ranking: 2
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Florida fell just short of tying the NHL’s single-season record of 12 straight road wins on Thursday, losing a 1-0 nailbiter to Carolina. That wouldn’t hurt by itself, given the Panthers are an absolute wagon and have outscored their opponents 30-11 in February, but Florida does have fresh concerns. Matthew Tkachuk and Gustav Forsling both got hurt against Carolina and all we know for sure is that they’re “day to day.” They’re a great team and even have (a little) wiggle room, cap-wise; Florida deserves plenty of popcorn whether scrambling to overcome injuries or at full health and rolling over the competition.
3. Carolina Hurricanes, 34-17-5
Last week: 8
Sean’s ranking: 6
Murat’s ranking: 4
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Carolina has a playoff spot on the way, plenty of cap space and more than a full complement of draft picks in this summer’s draft. The only thing they need is a goalie and then another goalie to take over when the first goalie they acquire inevitably gets hurt.
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4. Boston Bruins, 34-12-12
Last week: 3
Sean’s ranking: 3
Murat’s ranking: 8
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
The draft-pick cupboard is bare in Boston after last season’s all-in push, the prospect pool is one of the very weakest in the league and there’s no cap space to be found. That doesn’t make a move impossible — just unlikely. The Bruins have been connected to Noah Hanifin, like other Eastern Conference contenders, and some combo of Matthew Poitras and a 2025 first-rounder can get plenty done. That (plus a whole bunch of cap space for 2024-25) makes them worth watching down the stretch.
5. Vancouver Canucks, 37-16-6
Last week: 1
Sean’s ranking: 4
Murat’s ranking: 7
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
If Jim Rutherford is running the show, your team is going to land on the high end of the scale. It’s a rule. Now, have the Canucks already made their big move? Sure. Adding Elias Lindholm is as consequential a trade as we’ll see all season. More cap space is earmarked for Phil Kessel, too. Still, Vancouver is going to be in on defensemen over the next couple of weeks, if only to keep them away from their competition in the Western Conference.
6. Toronto Maple Leafs, 32-16-8
Last week: 11
Sean’s ranking: 8
Murat’s ranking: 5
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Two weeks ago, it was legitimate to wonder whether they’d punt on the deadline. Now? Six straight wins, five without Morgan Rielly, behind generational superstars Auston Matthews and Bobby McMann. The gall of these guys. That’s only going to lead to more reports connecting them to every defenseman on the market whose name you actually know. The main factor: Other GMs (hello, Craig Conroy) trying to wear Brad Treliving down until he moves either a first-round pick or top prospect.
7. Dallas Stars, 34-14-8
Last week: 4
Sean’s ranking: 5
Murat’s ranking: 9
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Dallas has been losing to great teams and terrible teams with equal aplomb but continues to lead the Central Division. Meanwhile, Miro Heiskanen remains elite, the forwards were deep and versatile long before Wyatt Johnston took another step, Thomas Harley has been a revelation, and Jake Oettinger has another gear in him yet. The Stars have a little over $2 million in long-term injured reserve cushion available, and it would be all kinds of fun if they added Chris Tanev or someone like him to cement a roster that has all of the firepower it could ask for. As an aside, maybe someday the world will realize how great Roope Hintz has become. Wouldn’t that be pleasant?
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8. Los Angeles Kings, 28-17-10
Last week: 15
Sean’s ranking: 13
Murat’s ranking:3
Popcorn factor: 🍿
The Kings have won six of eight in the wake of their holiday season derailment, but it’s tough to see them as a deadline factor, given how little money they have to spend. The X-factor: Viktor Arvidsson back on LTIR would free up some space, if need be.
9. Edmonton Oilers, 33-18-2
Last week: 7
Sean’s ranking: 7
Murat’s ranking: 11
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿
The Oilers are more interesting than any team with minimal cap flexibility, movable contracts and worthwhile prospects should be. Is that the McDavid factor at play? Maybe; his presence alone means that every season should bring an all-in push. They’re in the “linked to Chris Tanev” club, and they’ve got a serious need for a scoring winger (as argued here by Daniel Nugent-Bowman). They’re probably not going to be able to make big upgrades in both spots, but it’s going to be interesting to watch them try.
10. Colorado Avalanche, 35-18-4
Last week: 9
Sean’s ranking: 11
Murat’s ranking: 11
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
The Avs already tried adding a bunch of middle-six forwards who aren’t particularly good, so this is a challenge. “Let MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen cook and cross your fingers” is a valid course of action, and it’s fair to expect Colorado to make some sort of addition to their top nine, but this season, they’re probably destined to go as far as the big guns take them. And that’s fine.
11. Philadelphia Flyers, 30-20-7
Last week: 13
Sean’s ranking: 15
Murat’s ranking: 16
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
The Flyers’ ongoing refusal to fall out of a wild-card spot is one of the funnier things taking place, but it still sounds like a Sean Walker trade will happen at some point. As it should; he’s a pending UFA and seems like a lock to bring back a first-rounder. Overall, though, their .588 point pace has taken a bunch of other interesting names off the board.
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12. Winnipeg Jets, 34-15-5
Last week: 10
Sean’s ranking: 10
Murat’s ranking: 12
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
Hi! Murat here. (If I had a cap, I would politely tip it now.) With numbers-crunching know-nothing Dom Luszczyszyn on holiday, I finally get the chance to make the world acknowledge the perfectly cromulent city of Winnipeg and to explain why the Jets are good. I had my lines all prepared. “It’s more than Connor Hellebuyck, despite his Vezina Trophy runaway season,” I would have said. “The Jets are dominating teams at five-on-five,” I would have followed. “Look! Look! Notice my hometown and therefore me by association!” The problem is that Winnipeg spent Dom’s vacation week forgetting how to make line changes and giving up goals for free in a way it hasn’t in ages. The Jets did pick up a couple of wins, though, and do deserve credit for getting Sean Monahan in the immediate aftermath of Elias Lindholm slipping away. Monahan has been a great fit, and, with plenty of cap space left, Winnipeg is not nearly done shopping.
13. Vegas Golden Knights, 32-19-6
Last week: 6
Sean’s ranking: 9
Murat’s ranking: 14
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Maybe Mark Stone will return to health just in time to play one rusty game and then 21 dominant ones en route to a Stanley Cup and a worthy case for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP. Wait, that already happened. … Maybe Vegas can conveniently stash him on LTIR for a moment and bring in an impact forward at the deadline that scores 18 points en route to the … Ivan Barbashev did that too? May as well just add Jake Guentzel or Reilly Smith to the Golden Knights’ roster and plan your best fake surprise face for when Stone comes back just in time to dominate the postseason. Credit to the Golden Knights: Vegas is seldom bad and never boring.
14. Detroit Red Wings, 30-20-6
Last week: 14
Sean’s ranking: 12
Murat’s ranking: 15
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Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
The octopi are back, Patrick Kane is a point-per-game overtime hero and the Red Wings look like a playoff team after seven years outside of the postseason. Is it the late 2000s again? Is Detroit about to sign Cup finalist Marian Hossa, only to make him a Cup finalist again? (Kind of neat that Kane’s goal in 2010 helped get Hossa his first Cup but that bit of lore is probably more enjoyable for Blackhawks fans.) It’s worth mentioning that, as a team that’s still building upward, the Red Wings have a ton of cap space to go shopping if GM Steve Yzerman wants to seize the moment. The East looks stacked, but Kane and David Perron, among others, are pending UFAs, so there is a little bit of a “win-now” lens available if you’re sizing up the Red Wings’ trade deadline.
15. Tampa Bay Lightning, 30-23-5
Last week: 12
Sean’s ranking: 14
Murat’s ranking: 17
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿
The Lightning have lost three straight games while getting “only” two points out of NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov in that span. Tampa Bay is not synonymous with mediocrity (at least not in recent years) and is synonymous with making aggressive plays at the trade deadline. The Lightning are keeping Steven Stamkos and they have LTIR room to burn via Mikhail Sergachev’s injury – the only question is what, if anything, they have left to trade. They have The Athletic’s 29th-ranked prospect pool and have already traded away their first-round draft picks this year and next.
16. St. Louis Blues, 30-24-2
Last week: 21
Sean’s ranking: 16
Murat’s ranking: 18
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
The Blues woke up Friday still in a wild-card spot, but that hasn’t stopped them from listening to offers on Pavel Buchnevich, according to The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford. The market is thin on players like Buchnevich — “good forwards,” specifically — and he’s got another year on his contract. Shopping a top-line winger is a lot more intriguing than sending out rentals like Sammy Blais and Marco Scandella.
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17. New York Islanders, 23-19-13
Last week: 23
Sean’s ranking: 21
Murat’s ranking:13
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
There’s no point in trying to guess what Lou Lamoriello is going to do, but a pivot toward “seller” still feels unlikely — and even if it happened, which players here are tradeable? Is someone really going to add Jean-Gabriel Pageau at two-plus years for $5.5 million a season? Also, if they did, how interesting would it really be?
18. New Jersey Devils, 27-22-4
Last week: 16
Sean’s ranking: 19
Murat’s ranking: 19
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Imagine the New Jersey Devils with Connor Hellebuyck. Sure, that ship has long sailed, but, just for agony’s sake, consider the alternate world in which the $6.17 million Vezina Trophy frontrunner was available on the market as a pending UFA. There’s an element of violence to invoking this hypothetical, but New Jersey is a stacked team everywhere but in goal and there’s no surprise in this outcome. We’d both be delighted if they added Jacob Markstrom, John Gibson if he’s still got it, or some other form of top-end goaltender just so we could see what our former columnist/future NHL GM Tyler Dellow’s team could accomplish with >.900 goaltending.
19. Nashville Predators, 28-24-4
Last week: 21
Sean’s ranking: 18
Murat’s ranking: 20
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
The GM version of Barry Trotz is a blast. We’ve said that before. Three straight wins and a wild-card spot, though, have thrown some water on the idea that he’d trade Juuse Saros — but there’s plenty of time left, and the goaltending market is weird. Lots of playoff-caliber teams need somebody, and among the actual options, only Markstrom is in Saros’ league.
20. Minnesota Wild, 26-24-6
Last week: 22
Sean’s ranking: 23
Murat’s ranking: 16
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Minnesota gave up seven goals to Vancouver and won by three. That’s North Star, Blades of Steel-era stuff, but it’s also sandwiched between losses to the Jets and Sabres, so the Wild are having trouble closing ground in the wild-card race. What comes next? A Marc-Andre Fleury trade, for one, with Fleury’s consent. It also seems likely that teams will ask after Pat Maroon, whose status as a Stanley Cup good luck charm is probably still intact after going two whole postseasons without a Cup after winning three times in a row from 2019 to 2021.
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21. Seattle Kraken, 24-21-11
Last week: 19
Sean’s ranking: 19
Murat’s ranking: 23
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿
Three Kraken players — Jordan Eberle, Alex Wennberg and Tomas Tatar — are on Chris Johnston’s latest trade board. Eberle is a name-brand middle-sixer; Wennberg is one of the few available half-decent centers. Justin Schultz, as a pending UFA right-shot defenseman, is worth tracking, too.
22. Pittsburgh Penguins, 25-21-8
Last week: 18
Sean’s ranking: 20
Murat’s ranking: 24
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Pittsburgh bet big on Kyle Dubas and on winning with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Dubas’ tenure is still unfolding, but early returns are poor: Crosby has been brilliant, again, but he has too often been alone, leading to the possibility that the Penguins get torn apart instead of augmented at the trade deadline. That said, the Penguins beat Montreal on Thursday with Malkin, Letang and Erik Karlsson all featuring – and Bryan Rust scored a power-play goal – so many things are possible, including a Jake Guentzel trade. He might be the best player on the market.
23. Calgary Flames, 27-25-5
Last week: 20
Sean’s ranking: 22
Murat’s ranking: 22
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
It’s never a good sign when two of your top defensemen and your No. 1 goalie headline The Athletic’s trade board, as Jacob Markstrom, Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev do here. Calgary’s playoff odds look poor, even with those players, although it’s nice that Jonathan Huberdeau is heating up. What to make of it all? There are still lots of good players in Calgary, and the Flames have a bunch of draft picks, including two first-round picks this year now that Elias Lindholm is in Vancouver. The Flames are must-watch material heading into the deadline because they’re selling but also seem heavily invested in the future – it’s easy to see them going shopping all over again this summer with the pieces they acquire now.
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24. Washington Capitals, 26-21-8
Last week: 24
Sean’s ranking: 24
Murat’s ranking: 21
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Alex Ovechkin is scoring again, Washington has won three straight games, and the Capitals are within (a particularly long) arm’s reach of Tampa Bay for the second wild-card spot in the East. There’s still hope to their season, and Ovechkin’s 10-game point streak is a fun storyline after he was written off earlier in the year. It’s hard to get excited about Washington, though; the Caps’ decline feels real, Ovi’s best days are behind him, and it’s hard to forget that they’ve just lost six games in a row and eight of nine. Maybe they trade Joel Edmundson and Nic Dowd?
25. Ottawa Senators, 24-27-3
Last week: 28
Sean’s ranking: 25
Murat’s ranking: 25
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
The Senators get an extra bucket or two solely because of Vladimir Tarasenko. His performance has dipped in Ottawa, due in part to a drop in shot volume, but he’s still a name-brand winger on pace to score 25 goals or thereabouts. If the Senators retain salary, he’ll have value to a contender, especially whoever misses out on Guentzel.
26. Buffalo Sabres, 25-27-4
Last week: 26
Sean’s ranking: 26
Murat’s ranking: 26
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Buffalo is in the unique position of being good and getting better while having almost no chance of making the playoffs. The Athletic’s Matt Fairburn recently wrote about additions that would serve the Sabres now and well into the future, ranging from Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic to Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar, and I’d say that perfectly underscores Buffalo’s complicated position. I also wonder if there’s legitimate interest in pending UFAs like Victor Olofsson, Kyle Okposo and Erik Johnson, who won a Cup with Colorado in 2022.
27. Montreal Canadiens, 22-27-8
Last week: 25
Sean’s ranking: 27
Murat’s ranking: 28
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Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
The Canadiens have players they’d like to move — someone could use Jake Allen, and Tanner Pearson is the sort of player whom a team acquires just to say they did something. Other than that, Sean Monahan left town last month. Nothing to see here.
28. Columbus Blue Jackets, 18-27-10
Last week: 29
Sean’s ranking: 28
Murat’s ranking: 27
Popcorn factor: 🍿
Every player on Columbus’ roster is either untradeable or uninteresting. Classic trap. Jack Roslovic is a pending UFA who’s been effective at times, but not at the moment. Other than that? Oof. Also, they don’t have a general manager.
29. Anaheim Ducks, 20-34-2
Last week: 30
Sean’s ranking: 30
Murat’s ranking: 29
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
The Trevor Zegras rumors are confusing – if there’s any uncertainty about him at all, why not just wait, given how long he’s under team control – but wouldn’t it be fun if Anaheim traded John Gibson somewhere good? He’s reclaimed his form, putting together impressive goals saved above expected stats, but wouldn’t it be fun to see him win some games? Beyond that, it seems likely that playoff teams will come calling for Ilya Lyubushkin and Adam Henrique. There’s popcorn to be had in Orange County.
30. Arizona Coyotes, 23-29-4
Last week: 23
Sean’s ranking: 29
Murat’s ranking: 31
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Dangdarnit, we can’t help but be enthralled by a team with seven draft picks inside the top 100 in each of the next two years. What are the Coyotes going to do with all of that? More fun: Can they add yet more second-round picks? They’ve got 10 of those over the next three years, and it’s fun to watch a team go about things differently than everyone else, whatever its reasons. A terrible losing streak has ended the Coyotes’ flirtation with a playoff spot, but they’re fun to watch. Maybe a team gives them four more second-round picks for Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba.
31. San Jose Sharks, 15-35-5
Last week: 31
Sean’s ranking: 31
Murat’s ranking: 30
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
The Sharks are probably less of a wasteland than you’d expect — Kaapo Kähkönen can start games in net, and Anthony Duclair has ability regardless of how horrendously his season has gone — but realistically, how excited can you get about that?
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32. Chicago Blackhawks, 15-39-3
Last week: 32
Sean’s ranking: 32
Murat’s ranking: 32
Popcorn factor: 🍿🍿
Connor Bedard is back, and that’s great news for the entire league. Beyond that, Chicago’s trade chips don’t seem too thrilling, but there are an awful lot of them. The most fun available, other than watching Connor Bedard play like Connor Bedard, could be in the form of Chicago using its abundant cap space to broker trades for cap-strapped opponents. The Blackhawks still have two retention spots available, which is sort of neat. Did we mention Connor Bedard?
(Top photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)