(How about that for some clickbait?)

It feels like a broken record to hear from national writers that Kevyn Adams has been constantly making calls to his peers seeing if there are any potential players available for trade, but for the most part, they’ve continuously been unable to fine The Move. Nikolaj Ehlers rumors came around again last summer, but the reported asking price was astronomical.

They’ve mentioned that it’s tough to find trade partners and the right deal because you need two sides to make a deal, but a common response from fans is “Doesn’t matter – go find something”

So that’s what I’m doing.

I sent the ask out to the 375 members of our discord for some examples of players that they think about when they think “Go find one.”

There was a wide range of aspirations, but the consensus was to make a big swing or to add to the middle of the lineup with more stability.

RHD – Henri Jokiharju’s splits with and without Rasmus Dahlin lead to a bottleneck in the D pairings where there has been at least one that ends up being weaker upon necessity, and while Connor Clifton has played his role fairly well this season so far, another RHD with a “stability” archetype could do wonders for not only Dahlin, but also Owen Power, Bo Byram, and Mattias Samuelsson.

Connor Murphy – Chicago Blackhawks, Age 31, $4.4M Cap Hit, Summer 2026 UFA

Murphy’s name has been a part of this exercise for multiple years, and despite playing for a weak Blackhawks team has had pretty good results as a pure defender, playing mostly with Wyatt Kaiser and Alex Vlasic so far this season at 5v5. There’s a long way to go for Chicago, who have 4 picks in the first two rounds of next year’s draft but probably wouldn’t turn down extra assets if offered. Of course that interest history would have most wondering what is keeping there from being any action towards a trade, but it still fits this exercise as far as I’m concerned.

Brandon Carlo – Boston Bruins – Age 27 – $4.1M Cap Hit – Summer 2027 UFA

People seemed to have a lot of interest in the Bruins, and it’s worth wondering what their thought process would be if the slow start ended up carrying through the full season. I wouldn’t think that one bad year would lead to accepting this is the end of Boston’s reign of terror, but if the perennial contender standard means that this season wasn’t good enough, it could create an opportunity for “fresh start” hockey trades that don’t necessarily make the division restrictions a thing. Carlo was the guy to come up here, and while I’m not bought in on a Boston deal personally, Carlo would definitely help things out here even though it seems he’s dropped off the last two seasons to an extent. Of course, he’d be an upgrade for the Sabres given the standard. If he was truly available, I don’t think the price would be that high even with the premium that comes along with RHDs.

BUT he does have a 10 team No Move Clause that starts this year.

For the position as a whole, there is a lot of crazy money being handed out in UFA the last two seasons, and now with the cap going up at an accelerated rate, that’s only going to continue. It would be much better to upgrade the blue line in the trade market.

The Second Line

Preaching to the choir, but anything Top 6 works here. Not just because good teams don’t have to worry about either of their top 2 lines, but it allows for more flexibility to move struggling players down, or even out, of the lineup.

Here is where the swings could be bigger, so let’s start with the names people had in mind there.

Kirill Marchenko – Columbus Blue Jackets – Age 24 – $3.85M Cap Hit – Summer 2027 RFA

If you don’t know Marchenko, you probably should. He’s off to a point per game pace through 15 games in his third full season in the NHL for the Blue Jackets. After 23 goals and 19 assists last season, there is nothing to suggest that the start is luck based to this point, but it’s also not off the charts enough to suggest that the 6 goals and 9 assists to open the season is too good for Columbus to include him as a piece in a hockey trade. I’d certainly call but not get my hopes up until Mr. Waddell gives you a response you’d be interested in.

Charlie Coyle – Boston Bruins – Age 32 – $5.25M Cap Hit – Summer 2026 UFA

With an 8 team NMC this year and 3 team next year, this one is also not looking too great conceptually, but we might as well check it out after checking out Carlo earlier.

And regardless, he doesn’t look to be a solution. This feels like a trade to a team well into a cup window.

Pennsylvania – Discord seems to have interested in making phone calls to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Let’s travel there next.

Travis Koenecny – Philadelphia Flyers – Age 27 – $5.5M Cap Hit this season, 8 year, $70M contract starts next season

Like with Elias Pettersson, if this player is to be traded, it has to be before July 1, when they have no move clauses kicking in. People also had interest in Owen Tippett, but he also just signed an extension.

I don’t know what the Flyers expectations are for this season, but if they also see a vision of not reaching expectations, maybe Hockey Trade category kicks in here for changes of scenery, etc.

Either would certainly be as good of a piece to add to the right win, especially with the struggles of Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens this season, but no matter the number of pieces in addition to at least one of those two guys, I just don’t see Danny Briere not wanting these guys as part of their long term plans with that contract being singed early.

Michael Bunting – Pittsburgh Penguins – Age 29 – $4.5M Cap Hit, UFA Summer 2026

A guy who has picked up a Discordian-doomer (?) reputation, Bunting is the player that people have started to use in the “yeah all the talk and then they end up with Michael Bunting” context. And I get it. He has a 10 team not trade clause this season, so that could limit things, but the profile for Bunting doesn’t necessarily represent the solution to the problems, with the offensive contributions analytically not outweighing the struggles defensively, and even in the scoresheet, he has only registered 2 goals and 2 assists in 17 games for the Penguins this year.

Uncertain Directions

And lastly we have a guy from two teams that have seen results that don’t align with expectations and could be looking for a spark.

Tommy Novak – Nashville Predators – Age 27 – $3.5M Cap Hit – Summer 2027 UFA

Novak is another guy whose output quality has lagged behind the results early on this season, almost fitting for what has been seen a rough start for the Predators. With this profile and having just started a new contract, it would indeed also be a hockey trade move, but it almost has the profile of a potential move from Nashville to save their season if they were to make this type of trade before the calendar year flips, which of course could mean an overpay by Nashville to get something else in return. He missed Monday’s game, but there’s been no word on the extent of the injury.

Ryan Strome – Anaheim Ducks – Age 31 – $5M Cap Hit, Summer 2027 UFA

While names like Zegras or Terry would really shake things up both in Anaheim and Buffalo, and both were included as part of this exercise, I’m focusing on Strome because the Ducks rebuild and roster structure doesn’t have the feel of one where 2 and a half more years of Strome lines up with their plans. He’s dropped off substantially since joining the Ducks in 2022-23 after a handful of years with the Rangers, but the Ducks themselves have had some weird underlyings for awhile now so you don’t necessarily know for sure what that defensive frame aligns with. I’d call but not make this move unless it’s a beneficial price.

Data and Visuals courtesy of HockeyViz.com and Evolving-Hockey.com

(Original Stock Photo via Microsoft)