Eyes shift to New York with Panarin, Trocheck in play — The Fourth Period
LOS ANGELES, CA — The New York Rangers may have energized the trade market on Friday when they revealed they are going through a retool and will work with Artemi Panarin’s agent to find him a new home, but the Calgary Flames got the ball rolling by pulling the trigger on Rasmus Andersson and moving him to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
With the Olympic roster freeze kicking in just 16 days from now, trade action may start to pick up across the NHL, even though league-wide trade discussions have been active and ongoing.
The Flames aren’t expected to be done, as they have more irons in the fire.
Forwards Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg are among the names teams are eyeing, with the Dallas Stars still interested in Coleman, who has another year left on his contract. While it may still be too early to assess Dallas GM Jim Nill’s desire to land the Plano native, the Stars are on his preferred trade list.
Soon after word spread that the Flames moved Andersson, several teams reached out to Calgary GM Craig Conroy about defenceman Zach Whitecloud, whom he acquired from the Knights and has two years left on his deal at a very appealing $2.75 million cap hit.
While there are obviously no guarantees a move is made here, I believe Conroy will consider flipping the 29-year-old rearguard between now and the March 6 trade deadline – he has options and more will appear.
As for the Rangers, teams interested in Panarin, who jumped to No.1 on our updated Trade Watch List, will want to know how much of his contract the Rangers are willing to retain.
Panarin, 34, has an $11,642,857 cap hit and if the Rangers retain upwards of half the hit it drops the AAV to $5,821,428, theoretically creating additional options for GM Chris Drury. But Panarin has a full no-movement clause and will dictate what those options truly are. Speculation over the last few days has already linked the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings and Stars to Panarin, but none of those clubs get a sniff without the player saying so.
