Mammoth Interested In Dougie Hamilton
Add the Mammoth to the list of teams that have kicked the tires on Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton, says David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Whether the feeling is reciprocal remains to be seen. Hamilton has a full no-movement clause accompanied by a 10-team trade list. That extensive trade protection already nixed a deal that would have sent Hamilton to the Sharks last summer. Nonetheless, Pagnotta adds that while “his agent is trying to help facilitate a move” and that he’s “open to exploring options outside of his preferred list,” his market isn’t particularly fervent. The Maple Leafs had some interest, but their recent slide has likely taken them out of the buying conversation, especially in terms of taking on a player with a steep cap hit like Hamilton’s $9MM. San Jose still has some degree of interest, according to Pagnotta, but it’s unclear whether Hamilton has changed his tune on a move there.
While Hamilton’s initial cost is pricey, he only has two years left on his deal and will be a UFA in 2028. The cost of entrance will take many playoff hopefuls out of the picture, especially if the Devils aren’t keen on retaining salary, but that type of structure works for a team like Utah that has loads of present cap space, some money coming off the books this summer, and no big-ticket RFAs to negotiate with until after Hamilton’s contract expires.
Talks apparently slowed regarding Hamilton last month after fellow righty Luke Hughes exited New Jersey’s lineup with a shoulder dislocation. With the Devils well out of the playoff picture and Hughes close to returning, though, they should be more willing to re-engage in conversations. Hughes’ absence has opened the door for Hamilton to get reps as New Jersey’s top power-play quarterback once again, though, and he’s delivered a 2-5–7 scoring line in his last 10 as a result. The Devils are hoping that’s boosted his stock to some degree, although his 22 points in 54 games this season are still on track for his worst offensive showing in over 10 years.
That’s understandably a sign of concern for a defender on the wrong side of 30 whose offensive acumen was always his selling point. It’s also a testament to just how consistent a producer he’d been up to this point, though. From 2014 to 2025, Hamilton averaged 16 goals and 52 points per 82 games and finished top 10 in Norris Trophy voting four times. It’s now been three years since he received any award consideration, and his output has been on a somewhat consistent decline since a left pectoral muscle tear limited him to just 20 games in the 2023-24 campaign.
Still, for a playoff hopeful in Utah that’s being held back by a relative lack of depth scoring and a bottom-two power play, Hamilton’s fit would be natural as an established, successful PP1 option. Any concerns about his defense should be quelled by a system under head coach Andre Tourigny that’s consistently held possession control since the franchise’s inception last season, controlling 53.7% of shot attempts and 53.6% of scoring chances at 5-on-5 this year.
It could also come with a relatively low acquisition cost, depending on how desperate the Devils are to clear the bulk of Hamilton’s money. They likely would have been willing to take less for him earlier in the season when they were still in the playoff conversation and were looking to boost their cap flexibility to make additions. The latter is still likely a long-term priority, but is no longer a pressing short-term concern with them on a five-game losing streak and 13 points out of the playoff picture.
Wild Emerging As Frontrunner In Vincent Trocheck Trade Talks
As the Wild gear up for an all-in trade deadline following their earlier acquisition of Quinn Hughes, they’re now the league-wide favorite to acquire center Vincent Trocheck from the Rangers, according to Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Minnesota’s interest in Trocheck dates back several weeks but was surely fueled by Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic’s report earlier this month that the Rangers had essentially resigned themselves to moving him by the deadline, as compared to making it a summer deal. For a team that lost a top-six center in Marco Rossi in the Hughes deal, adding another one – a clear-cut upgrade, no less – is a natural next step for general manager Bill Guerin as he aims to guide the Wild out of a cutthroat Central Division picture in the playoffs.
While salary cap considerations have kept the Wild out of major trade conversations in recent years, that’s no longer the case. Even after the Hughes deal, they project to have $12.3MM in cap space on deadline day, per PuckPedia. That’s more than enough to take on Trocheck’s deal, which runs at a cap hit of $5.625MM through 2028-29, with no retention and without subtracting a roster player from the mix.
Minnesota has depleted a good portion of its valuable young talent, shipping off Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium alongside Rossi in the Hughes trade, but has more to spare. As Mercogliano writes, 2022 first-rounder Danila Yurov is likely a non-starter. The rookie has eight goals and 22 points in 52 outings this season and is now Minnesota’s clear-cut top “prospect,” depending on your definition of the word. Mercogliano relays word from his Minnesota-based colleague, Michael Russo, that he “would be very difficult to pry away,” even for a talent like Trocheck with 37 points in 44 games on an offensively stagnant Rangers club.
Aside from that roadblock, there are still plenty of other names the Wild could leverage for the Rangers to consider. Center Charlie Stramel, the Wild’s first-rounder in 2023, has recovered nicely from a tough start to his college career and is now a standout 21-year-old senior at Michigan State, posting a 19-21–40 scoring line in 30 games with a +30 rating that leads forwards nationally. Right-shot defenseman David Jiricek, drafted sixth overall by the Blue Jackets in 2022, hasn’t demonstrated much forward progress since his acquisition last season, and it stands to reason they’d be comfortable flipping him as a result.
Trocheck does have some say in where he ends up with a 12-team no-trade list. The 32-year-old is reportedly open to a move to the Twin Cities but would otherwise prefer to stay in the Eastern Conference. Pagnotta reports that the Kings, Jets, Mammoth, and Avalanche have expressed some level of interest as well, but those could all end up being non-starters based on his M-NTC.
Bruins Reassign Michael DiPietro
Feb. 27: Boston reassigned DiPietro to Providence following last night’s win over the Blue Jackets, per the AHL’s transactions log. Swayman will return to the team for tomorrow’s game against the Flyers. DiPietro was needed for six minutes of game action to relieve Korpisalo, who was temporarily pulled by concussion spotters before returning. He stopped both shots he faced.
Feb. 24: DiPietro was recalled back to Boston today, per Ryan. It’s unclear if he’s up solely for practice purposes or if they’re expecting to need him to back up Korpisalo against the Blue Jackets if Swayman doesn’t return to the team by Thursday.
Feb. 20: Boston has assigned DiPietro back to Providence, Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe reports.
Feb. 18: The Bruins announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled goaltender Michael DiPietro from AHL Providence on an emergency basis. He’ll serve as Boston’s lone NHL-contracted practice netminder for the time being, as Jeremy Swayman (USA) and Joonas Korpisalo (Finland) are still representing their respective countries at the Olympics.
Back during training camp, there was concern DiPietro wouldn’t make it through waivers on his way to Providence. The 26-year-old had emerged as one of the AHL’s top netminders over the previous two seasons, including a .927 SV% in 40 games last year that earned him the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender.
He’s well on his way to taking home that hardware for a second straight season. In 28 appearances for the P-Bruins, he’s put up a downright ridiculous .942 SV% and 1.64 GAA with a 21-5-0 record – but somehow only has one shutout to his name. Nonetheless, he has a 12-point lead in save percentage on the second-place netminder with at least 20 appearances.
He’s signed through next season at a $812,500 cap hit, giving the Bruins almost no choice but to work with Korpisalo’s 10-team no-trade list and find a new home for the veteran backup this summer. If they can’t, they’d essentially be forced into trading DiPietro to avoid the near certainty of losing him for nothing on waivers next October.
Red Wings Activate Simon Edvinsson From Injured Reserve
The Red Wings announced today they’ve activated defenseman Simon Edvinsson from injured reserve. He’ll be in the lineup for tonight’s clash with the Senators. They have an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is required.
Edvinsson spent the last seven games of Detroit’s pre-Olympic break schedule on the shelf with a lower-body injury. Thankfully for the Wings, the bulk of his recovery time came while no games were being played – he otherwise surely would have missed a double-digit total at what is a crucial point of the season for their playoff positioning.
With so much time off, the Wings get Edvinsson, hopefully, at full strength after going 5-3-2 to end January and through the beginning of February. That middling stretch, plus the Sabres’ win in their return to play last night, has bumped Detroit out of the Atlantic Division podium and into a wild-card spot.
Detroit dropped five out of seven with Edvinsson out. That’s not surprising considering the domino effect his absence has on their defense.
The 2021 sixth-overall pick has now fully arrived as a top-pairing piece, serving as Moritz Seider‘s partner for most of the season. He’s averaging over 22 minutes per game as a result and has a 6-11–17 scoring line with a +6 rating in 48 games. His pairing with Seider has also controlled 55.3% of expected goals at 5-on-5, eighth in the league out of 29 pairings with at least 500 minutes together this season, per MoneyPuck.
But without Edvinsson in the mix, Detroit’s left-shot options on defense become paper-thin. Ben Chiarot remains in the #2 slot on the depth chart and has been outscored 47-38 at 5-on-5 this season – his seventh consecutive campaign with a negative differential – while controlling only 46.2% of shot attempts. Albert Johansson‘s possession numbers aren’t any better.
They now get him back down a stretch run that sees the Wings face the sixth-most difficult remaining schedule, per Tankathon. The good news for them is their three principal competitors for playoff positioning – the Bruins, Canadiens, and Sabres – are also in the top 10.
Sharks Have Shown Interest In Braden Schneider
The Sharks’ forward progress this season means they’ve fully exited the teardown portion of their rebuild. They’re expected to ship out a couple of names from their bevy of pending UFA veteran defenders, but that won’t preclude them from adding pieces too. They already swung to pick up winger Kiefer Sherwood from the Canucks earlier this year and made a play to snag Artemi Panarin from the Rangers. Their talks with New York didn’t stop with Panarin, though. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports San Jose is among the teams to show interest in Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider.
The 24-year-old Schneider certainly doesn’t qualify as adding star power to the mix, but he fills a huge organizational need for a Sharks club whose only long-term weakness is a relative lack of promising right-shot defenders in the system. He’s more of a shutdown threat than a puck-mover but did hit the 20-point plateau last season, now with a 2-9–11 scoring line and a -15 rating in 57 games in 2025-26. That’s come while the physical 6’3″ righty is averaging a career-high 20:19 of ice time per game, in large part due to his elevation into top-pair minutes for long stretches this season while Adam Fox has been dealing with injuries.
Schneider’s underlying numbers aren’t particularly strong. He’s never had a positive relative Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5 and has remained underwater in expected goals for the duration of his career as well. He fits a familiar mold of first-round picks struggling to find their way in New York – but with five seasons and nearly 350 NHL games under his belt, he’s almost a finished product. His toolbox is solid, but it’s fair to wonder if his lack of success in the possession department is a good fit for a Sharks team that already ranks last in the league with a 45.2% Corsi share at even strength.
Still, the Sharks don’t have much of a choice to add young right-shot depth, and Schneider is one of the few names who’s realistically available as New York embarks on a retool of its own. All three of their righties on their active roster, John Klingberg, Vincent Desharnais, and Timothy Liljegren, will be UFAs this summer. They do have 23-year-old Jack Thompson in the minors as a capable call-up option, and 2022 second-rounder Mattias Havelid is tracking to make an impact within the next couple of years, but neither has the size nor skillset Schneider brings. University of Denver standout Eric Pohlkamp is also in their system, but is also on the wrong side of 6’0″.
The Rangers were receiving calls on Schneider as far back as October. Just how long the Sharks have been in the mix remains to be seen, but their search for rights-controlled right-shot defenders operates independently of their immediate likelihood of playoff contention.
Avalanche Interested In Nazem Kadri Reunion
The Avalanche have already been busy opening cap space ahead of the trade deadline, taking a slight hit to their blue line depth to swap out Samuel Girard for Brett Kulak in Tuesday’s deal with the Penguins. They’re now projected to have close to $11MM in cap space on deadline day. That leaves them wide-open to acquire a big-name target to bolster their chase for the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup.
One of those targets is coming into view: Flames pivot Nazem Kadri, whose career year for the Avs in 2021-22 helped guide them to their only Cup win of the Nathan MacKinnon era, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. That comes amid Kadri’s name rocketing up trade lists following reports that he’s had a change of heart on his willingness to stay in Calgary long-term, plus Pagnotta indicating today that the Flames are open to retaining a portion of Kadri’s $7MM cap hit.
With a 13-team no-trade list, Kadri can block a move to several contenders. The Hurricanes, who were purported to have interest in him earlier this season, were reportedly on that list. It’s a relative certainty, though, that Kadri wouldn’t welcome a return to the destination where he had his greatest offensive success, which he then parlayed into his seven-year, $49MM free agency cash-in with Calgary in 2022.
Now 35, Kadri’s deal still has another three seasons left on it. He’ll be 38 when it’s up. For a cap-strapped team like the Avs, that makes a deal a non-starter without retention because of its long-term impact, even if they have the space to pull it off this season. If Calgary is willing to make him closer to a $5MM or $4MM player through 2028-29, though, that suddenly makes it a workable addition for Colorado. They’re up to $13MM in flexibility for next season after the Girard-for-Kulak trade with seven roster spots to fill. Bringing that figure back under $10MM with a Kadri pickup, assuming they don’t send a significantly-paid roster player the other way, would preclude them from making any major additions this summer as things stand, but it would still allow them to fill out a full roster with depth signings.
The presumption that the Avs wouldn’t send a roster player back may be hasty, though. They’re one of the deepest clubs in the league at every position, their prospect pool notwithstanding, and could easily stand to leverage a third-line name like Jack Drury or an even pricier one like Ross Colton in talks if the Flames have an interest in either.
If there’s a relative weakness on Colorado’s roster, it’s having Drury in the third-line slot down the middle. His eight goals and 19 points in 56 games this season are somewhat underwhelming on a team that scores as much as the Avs for a player averaging nearly 15 minutes per night. He’s nonetheless been incredibly valuable in the faceoff dot, winning 58.6% of his draws.
What Kadri lacks in faceoff acumen, he more than makes up for in what would likely give the Avs one of the best one-two-three punches down the middle in the modern era with MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, and himself. Even in a relatively down year for the late bloomer (at least in terms of him being a true top-six piece), he’s put up 39 points in 56 games to lead Calgary in scoring. That’s a 57-point pace over 82 games, and his recent history remains exceptional, with 35 goals last year and 75 points the year before.
It’s fair to question if a Kadri acquisition would cause the Avs to invest too much into aging assets for too long, though. While Nelson has exploded for 30 goals and 50 points in 56 games, he’s 34 years old and signed for two more years at a $7.5MM cap charge. With Cale Makar‘s next big payday scheduled for 2027, loading up too much past next season could leave them with too little flexibility to get a deal done.
Among the other teams that have expressed some level of interest are the Canadiens, as previously reported, plus Colorado’s Central Division challengers, the Stars and Wild, Pagnotta reports. He also added the Panthers as a team that’s kicked the tires, but that likely hinges on their decision to enter the deadline as buyers at all – something that’s looking less and less likely with a playoff spot now eight points out of reach.
Image courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images.
Capitals Reassign Sonny Milano
Feb. 26: The Capitals announced Thursday that they’ve assigned Milano to Hershey, indicating he cleared waivers.
Feb. 25: The Capitals will place Sonny Milano on waivers Wednesday at 1:00 pm Central, Tom Gulitti of NHL.com reports. Until he’s assigned to AHL Hershey tomorrow or is claimed by another team, he’s been designated as a non-roster player to afford Washington the open spot to activate Connor McMichael from injured reserve as expected.
Milano, 29, initially signed a league-minimum deal with the Caps at the beginning of the 2022-23 season after being non-tendered by the Ducks. He had so much success in a depth role, notching 11 goals and 33 points in 64 games, that Washington quickly moved to get him locked into a three-year, $5.7MM extension with a $1.9MM cap hit. He’s now in the final year of that deal, during which he’s been decimated by injuries. After scoring a career-high 15 goals in 49 games in 2023-24, Milano suited up just three times last season before sustaining a season-ending concussion in November.
Back healthy this year, he’s not the same player. Part of that is simply how little he’s been used. With names like Anthony Beauvillier, Ethen Frank, and Justin Sourdif surpassing him on the depth chart, he’s essentially now the Caps’ 14th forward. He’s been scratched for long stretches and, when dressed, has only averaged 8:53 of ice time per game in 31 showings. Considering that usage, his four goals and eight points aren’t too bad.
He’ll now get his first AHL usage since a brief stint with Hershey after signing with the Caps in 2022. He had two goals and an assist in five games that time around and has 118 points in 171 minor-league games for his career.
Milano is at his best when he’s given top-nine deployment and trusted to do little else but score. With no real fit for him to fill that role in D.C. anymore, he may ride out the last few months of his deal in the minors before reaching free agency this summer. If he goes unclaimed on waivers and remains in the Caps’ system, they’ll be left with a $750K cap charge.
Kraken Place Tye Kartye On Waivers
The Kraken announced that they’ve placed winger Tye Kartye on waivers. He was designated as a non-roster player yesterday to make room for Berkly Catton and Ben Meyers to come off injured reserve, so today’s move offers an explanation for that. He’ll be heading to AHL Coachella Valley tomorrow if he clears.
Kartye, 24, has largely fallen off Seattle’s long-term radar since emerging as an unlikely rookie presence in 2023. The undrafted free agent made his NHL debut in that year’s postseason and racked up three goals and five points in 10 games for Seattle off the bench as the Kraken forced the Stars to seven games in the second round.
His first regular season was full of promise as well. The 5’11”, 202-lb lefty immediately locked down a regular spot – even seeing some top-nine deployment up with Matty Beniers – and hit double-digit goals and 20 points in 77 games. He finished at a respectable 10.1% clip while ranking 10th on the team in shots on goal and leading the Kraken with 229 hits.
Since flashing that potential as a top-nine power forward with some much-needed physical juice, he hasn’t been able to keep up the offensive juice to justify receiving that ice time. Last season, his production fell to six goals and 14 points with a -14 rating in 63 games, becoming a semi-frequent healthy scratch in the process. His ice time dipped below 10 minutes per game as his shot generation nearly halved, although he still held up his end of the bargain in the hits department.
This year has been more of the same from the Ontario native. Through 40 games, he’s posted three goals and eight points with 98 hits. He plays a penalty-killing role when dressed, but that was becoming increasingly rare. He’d played in three straight prior to the break but was scratched for 10 consecutive games before that.
With another season left after this one at a $1.25MM cap hit, Kartye will still incur a $100K charge for the Kraken if he clears and is assigned to Coachella Valley. As Seattle leans into giving more ice time to younger names like Catton, Jacob Melanson, and Ryan Winterton, Kartye could be in line for his first non-conditioning assignment to the AHL since his first pro season back in 2022-23. He had 28 goals and 57 points in 72 games as a rookie that year.
Rangers Activate Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, Conor Sheary
12:26 p.m.: Fox, Shesterkin, and Sheary are off LTIR/IR with winger Brett Berard heading to AHL Hartford and goaltender Hugo Ollas heading to ECHL Bloomington in the corresponding moves, the team announced. Both had been recalled as practice players over the Olympic break.
11:03 a.m.: The Rangers will activate defenseman Adam Fox and winger Conor Sheary from long-term injured reserve and goaltender Igor Shesterkin from standard IR before tonight’s game against the Flyers, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters (including Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic). New York has one open roster spot, but will need to open two more before formalizing the moves.
While there will be plenty of starpower re-entering the Blueshirts’ lineup after the Olympic break, it will likely impact the outcome of their season very little. A 2-8-0 slide in their last 10 heading into the pause left them with a 22-29-6 record, leaving them as the only Eastern Conference team below .500 and in an eight-point hole for last place. They have virtually no chance of making the playoffs, but do currently boast 10.4% odds of locking up the first overall pick for the second time in seven years, per MoneyPuck.
Still, getting a pair of household names back in the lineup will make the stretch run far more tolerable for an offensively woeful Rangers team, especially after they offloaded leading point-getter Artemi Panarin in a blockbuster with the Kings at the beginning of the month. Without him, the Rangers have just six names who have crossed the 25-point mark this season with 25 games remaining on the schedule.
One of them is Fox, who’s bounced back in a big way this season after an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign. Of course, underwhelming by the 28-year-old’s standards still meant finishing 12th in Norris Trophy voting, but the 5’11” righty has now reclaimed his place among the few most impactful rearguards in the league – despite what his pre-injury snub from Team USA’s Olympic roster may otherwise indicate.
Various upper-body and lower-body issues have limited Fox to 30 appearances this year, with the latter one costing him 12 games before the break. He’s still managed four goals and 24 assists for 28 points, ranking eighth among NHL defenders with 0.93 points per game. That’s been complemented by Fox having the most offensively-involved season of his seven-year career, averaging 5.30 shot attempts per game, while also recording career-highs in actual (56.4) and relative (11.7) Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5.
Behind him, the Rangers’ right-shot depth is uninspiring. William Borgen is a fine bottom-four shutdown piece, but can’t handle top-pair minutes. Youngster Vincent Iorio was claimed off waivers from the Sharks prior to the break to ease the strain, but he only managed to get into one contest before the schedule paused. They’ve elevated Braden Schneider into top-pairing duties with Vladislav Gavrikov in Fox’s absence this year, but that pairing has controlled just 42.5% of expected goals at 5-on-5 compared to Gavrikov and Fox’s 57.9% mark. That all makes Fox the Rangers’ most valuable skater, at least after Panarin’s departure, by a rather significant margin.
No single player is more tied to the Rangers’ success than Shesterkin, though, as it has been virtually since he entered the league. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner and Hart Trophy finalist steps back into the starter’s crease after sustaining a lower-body injury against the Mammoth on Jan. 5.
Last season, the 30-year-old didn’t receive any Vezina votes for the first time since his rookie season. That correlated with the Blueshirts missing the postseason for the first time in four years. It’s unclear how his more limited playing time this season due to injuries will impact his standing, but like Fox, he’s had a bounce-back year when healthy.
The 6’1″ Russian is no longer putting up the electric .930+ save percentages we saw early in his career – no one is anymore, for that matter – but his .913 mark and 2.45 GAA are both considerable steps up from last year. He owns a 17-12-4 record through 34 starts and still ranks fifth in the league with 15.5 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck. On a per 60 basis, his 0.464 mark ranks fourth among goalies with at least 30 appearances.
Without Shesterkin, the Rangers have fallen apart with a 5-17-2 record. Aging backup Jonathan Quick has only managed a .890 SV% in 19 starts and one relief appearance, while third-stringer Spencer Martin has a .863 SV% and 4.13 GAA in four starts and two relief appearances. In their 13 games without Shesterkin heading into the break, they only won twice and allowed 4.62 goals per game.
As for Sheary, the 33-year-old winger has had a negligible impact in a bottom-six role after converting a professional tryout in training camp into a two-way deal. Despite averaging 14:35 of ice time per game, his highest deployment in three years, he’s scored just once while adding eight assists for nine points in 37 games.
Dating back to the 2023-24 campaign with the Lightning, the two-time Stanley Cup champion now has just five goals in his last 99 games. After spending most of last season in the AHL, he seems destined to return to a minor-league role next season after failing to make a positive impression in New York. Nonetheless, the Rangers’ dearth of bottom-six forwards and continued injuries to Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe will mean he returns in a third-line role tonight with Noah Laba and Brendan Brisson. He hasn’t played since sustaining a lower-body injury against the Capitals on New Year’s Eve.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.
Canucks Listening On Jake DeBrusk
Canucks winger Evander Kane is a known piece of trade bait after his struggles producing at home in Vancouver, especially given his pending free-agent status, but he’s not the only ‘Nucks winger on the market this spring. Vancouver is also listening to offers on Jake DeBrusk after being informed he is willing to waive his no-movement clause, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
It’s not at all surprising that the Canucks would listen to offers for DeBrusk, given the way their season has played out and considering their bevy of other bloated long-term commitments. The Canucks signed DeBrusk to a seven-year, $38.5MM contract with a $5.5MM cap hit in free agency in 2024 after he spent the first seven years of his career with the Bruins. DeBrusk was two years removed from a 50-point showing and had hit 25 goals three times in Boston, so he was viewed as an important piece to help replace a Vancouver middle six that had lost Elias Lindholm and Ilya Mikheyev that summer.
Things have gone quite poorly in Vancouver since his arrival, though. Their offense, which scored 3.40 goals per game in their Pacific Division-winning 2023-24 campaign, dropped to 2.84 GF/G last season and further to 2.54 this year. They’re in a seven-point hole in last place in the league coming out of the break and have no hope of re-entering the playoff picture. They’ll want to sell off as much as possible to accelerate the rebuild that began with the Quinn Hughes trade earlier this season, but without any high-end pending UFAs to dangle, moving largely consistent producers with control like DeBrusk has to be a consideration.
While DeBrusk’s 13 goals in 57 games this season are one of the worst per-game outputs of his career, his overall point production – adding 15 assists for 28 points – has been enough to rank third on Vancouver in scoring behind Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek. He’s also been brought down by a terrible 8.3% finishing rate, nearly half of last year’s mark and well below his career average. Averaging north of 17 minutes per game, he’s generating shot attempts at a career-best rate, although his usually above-water possession metrics leave something to be desired.
All that said, DeBrusk is ripe for an increase in production with a change of scenery. At a $5.5MM cap hit, his career average of 24 goals and 46 points per 82 games becomes attractive in a rising cap environment, especially as he’s cost-controlled for five more seasons with gradually relaxing trade protection. Producers with similar recent offensive track records, like Michael Bunting and Anders Lee, are projected to earn as much or more on the open market this summer.
Considering teams are facing what now looks to be a historically weak UFA class this summer, next week’s deadline could be a chance for clubs to do early bidding to address future holes in their roster. DeBrusk will be of interest to many in need of short and long-term top-nine help. Among the teams to have placed exploratory calls on DeBrusk are the Kraken and Red Wings, plus the Bruins exploring a reunion with him, per Pagnotta, but all of those conversations still appear to be in their early stages.