NHL Trade Rumors Roundup 2/15/20
Things are heating up as another coach has been fired and the injuries mount around the league. Let’s jump in and dive into the latest NHL trade rumor buzz.
Wild in Minnesota
Bruce Boudreau has been dismissed as the Wild head coach leading to more speculation that an overhaul of the roster is inevitable. The reason for that thinking is because the Wild were making a playoff push and were only three points out of a wildcard spot. It’s basically a signal that management has made a decision to start looking to next season already.
Everyone knows that the two biggest names they have to move are Matt Dumba and Jonas Brodin. Both are young blue liners with term that teams like Carolina, Winnipeg, and Toronto are looking for. Still, GM Bill Guerin has plenty of other assets he can move. One such player is Eric Staal who has only one year left on his deal at a reasonable 3.25M AAV. A team like the Islanders would jump at him in a heartbeat.
Waving Goodbye?
There are several aging veterans with No Move Clauses that will be of serious interest if they opt to waive them. The three big names are Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, and Henrik Lundqvist. If any of them do decide they’d like to go to a contender for one final playoff run, it would certainly change the dynamic of the deadline.
We’ve talked about Joe Thornton in our daily NHL rumor mill several times, but Duncan Keith is a new entrant to our daily espousing of trade talk. The 36 year old defenseman still has 3 years left on a deal that comes with a cap hit of $5.5M. If he does decide to waive, the Hawks will need to likely eat half that salary for the remaining term.
Henrik Lundqvist who only has one more year left is the least likely to waive. The 37 year old has not started for the Rangers since February 3rd, in a loss to Dallas where he was pulled. That’s 6 games without a start, and was just passed over in back to backs last night with Alexandar Georgiev starting both. A showcase for the young Bulgarian goalie, or the start of Hank’s long goodbye? We will soon find out.
Canes Ready to Deal
Pierre Lebrun recently reported that Carolina will trade one of their 2 first round picks for either Matt Dumba, Damon Severson, Rasmus Ristolainen, or Brandon Montour.
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