List of the top players who could get traded this offseason …
Frank Seravalli of TSN: Teams will be looking to make moves instead of losing players for nothing in the expansion draft. Teams like the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild may lose a quality defenseman to the Vegas Golden Knights if they don’t make a trade.
Top 30 Trade Bait board.
- Sami Vatanen – Anaheim
- Jonas Brodin – Minnesota
- Matt Dumba – Minnesota
- Matt Duchene – Colorado
- Travis Hamonic – NY Islanders
- Jordan Eberle – Edmonton
- Tyson Barrie – Colorado
- Boone Jenner – Columbus
- Alex Killorn – Tampa Bay
- Marc-Andre Fleury – Pittsburgh
- Ilya Kovalchuk – New Jersey
- Calvin de Haan – NY Islanders
- Calle Jarnkrok – Nashville
- Philipp Grubauer – Washington
- Antti Raanta – NY Rangers
- Andrew Copp – Winnipeg
- Joel Armia – Winnipeg
- Andrej Sustr – Tampa Bay
- William Karlsson – Columbus
- Jonathan Drouin – Tampa Bay
- Brenden Dillon – San Jose
- Ryan Pulock – NY Islanders
- Tyler Johnson – Tampa Bay
- Colton Sissons – Nashville
- Nathan Beaulieu – Montreal
- Brayden Schenn – Philadelphia
- Cody Eakin – Dallas
- Jimmy Hayes – Boston
- Jori Lehtera – St. Louis
- Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado
On the Vegas Golden Knights and the expansion draft …
Adam Kimelman of NHL.com: All GMs have been at the scouting combine this past week, and while Vegas GM George McPhee has been trying to focus on the combine, other GMs are talking them. McPhee holds a lot of power this month.
“Vegas holds all the cards,” Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “I’m talking to Vegas but I don’t know who they want or who they like on our team, and same for 30 other teams.”
Protected lists must be submitted by June 17th at 5:00 PM ET. There is going to be a lot talk between Vegas and all teams.
“We’ve been pretty open with it and explaining to everyone that we’re not going to just claim a player without having discussions with you about what works for you and what doesn’t work for you,” he said. “And both sides have been, in most of our discussions, really open … the clubs will tell us what they want to do and who they want to protect, and we’ll express our interest in who they have and see how we can get to a deal.”
Teams do understand they are the ones that are going to have to be a bit more flexible.
“If you’re talking to George, he’s going to squeeze everybody for things and do a real good job, I’m sure,” New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero said. “It’s a competition and he’s going to squeeze out what he can … at the end you just have to know what you’re going to pay to protect your player or something like that, and every team is different.
“At the end, George drives everything.”