A year ago, the NHL trade deadline saw the likes of Toffoli, Kuznetsov, Guentzel, Okposo, Duclair, Henrique, Wennberg, Walker, Mantha, Tanev, Lindholm, Zadorov, and Monahan all moved around the deadline. While this year has seen a flurry of high profile names moved, the "rental" market doesn't look nearly as impressive. There is a twofold reason for that.
The obvious reason is simply there aren't as many high profile players that are UFA. The second issue is the bigger one; there are far more teams in the mix for a playoff position than you typically see at this point of the season.
Let's look at the top 40 pending UFA's by points and break them down into different categories.
The Definitely Not Moving at the Deadline
Mitch Marner Mikko Rantanen Matt Duchene Nikolaj Ehlers Mikael Granlund John Tavares Brock Boeser Sam Bennett Jamie Benn Patrick Kane Aaron Ekblad Jacob Chychrun Neal Pionk Dmitri Orlov
Self explanatory. The above players may all be pending UFA's but they are on teams with Cup aspirations like Ehlers, just traded like Rantanen or Granlund, or a team pushing for a playoff spot that needs all the help they can get like Kane or Boeser.
The Probably Not Getting Traded But You Never Know Brad Marchand Claude Giroux Evgenii Dadanov Vladislav Namestnikov Jack Roslovic Eric Robinson Taylor Hall Connor Brown Jonathan Drouin Andrew Mangiapane Taylor Raddysh Victor Olofsson Nic Dowd
These players aren't the most elite, but they are all on contending teams that certainly won't be looking to subtract. The only way any of these players are getting moved is if these teams are upgrading. The one except on this could be Brad Marchand where even if the Bruins slip out of a playoff spot, I just can't see the Bruins moving their captain.
Likely To Be Traded If Their Team Falls Out of Contention Kyle Palmieri Brock Nelson Reilly Smith Joel Armia Jams van Riemsdyk Ivan Provorov Pius Suter Adam Gaudette
Call this the Islanders, Canadiens, Blue Jackets list. These are the players that are likely in play if these teams really fall out of playoff contention prior to the trade deadline. If these teams remain in the mix, there is a decent chance that they hold onto what they have. Likely Getting Dealt
Jason Zucker Ryan Donato Matt Grzelcyk Gustav Nyquist
That is it. In the top 40 point producers up to this stage of the regular season, those are the four players on bottom end teams that will likely get moved at the deadline.
Moving a bit further down the list you can find other names like Luke Kunin, Brandon Tanev, Yanni Gourde, Alex Kerfoot,, Nick Bjugstad, and Dante Fabbro that could be available but this is not a high end pool of available players this season. Far more depth adds.
What does this mean for the Oilers? Simply put, Edmonton will either be adding depth pieces to bolster their roster or if they are aiming higher, they will need to get creative and look at players with some term.
Something to keep an eye on.
Thanks for reading.