Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: There were only 19 trades made on deadline day, involving 37 players. Trading season is moving towards June instead of the trade deadline for teams.
“I think the planning probably takes place after the deadline and between June, more so than leading up to it, to significantly improve your club post-deadline,” Sweeney said. “Especially for teams that aren’t currently in the playoffs.”
Teams may have already been setting up things for pre-draft trades.
The Boston Bruins will be looking to improve their blueline. They will likely be calling the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have Shea Theodore ready for the NHL, and have pending RFAs in Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm. The Wild have to re-sign Matt Dumba and they had been listening to trade offers for Jonas Brodin already.
The Oilers might be a in position to land Auston Matthews in the draft, and if they did, it could add Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the trade watch list along with Nail Yakupov and Jordan Eberle. The Oilers are also looking to improve their blueline.
The Flyers have some salaries they’ll be looking to move out.
The Sabres have extra draft picks and salary space to make some moves.
The Lightning still the option to trade Jonathan Drouin and will have many teams interested.
Milan Lucic is from Vancouver and has always wondered out playing for his hometown Canucks. He’s a pending UFA and could have the opportunity. The Canucks are not in a good place though, and might be in Lucic’s better interest to take less money from the Kings.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that the Hurricanes weren’t able to trade pending UFA Cam Ward. The 32-year old could have trouble find work this offseason. The Hurricanes and Flames will be looking for goaltending help this summer. James Reimer will be a free agent, and the Red Wings could be looking to move Jimmy Howard.
