Sabres Acquire Tanner Pearson
The Buffalo Sabres have made one more move to shore up their depth before the Trade Deadline hit. They dealt a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for winger Tanner Pearson per TSN’s Darren Dreger.
Buffalo has confirmed the deal.
Pearson heads back to the Eastern Conference for the first time in three years, after spending last season with the Vegas Golden Knights and this season in Winnipeg. He has grown into a journeyman, extra forward in the latter part of his career, now headed for his fourth club in the last three seasons after a five-year stay with the Vancouver Canucks. Pearson will be playing with the seventh club of his 13-year NHL career when he joins the Sabres.
The 33-year-old winger has scored seven goals and 13 points in 52 games with Winnipeg this season. He has buoyed the quiet scoring with a plus-seven – highest on the Jets offense – and 68 hits – fourth-most among Winnipeg forwards. Two-way responsibility has underlined Pearson’s game in recent years, marked by 53 points, a minus-one, and 214 hits over his last 184 games.
Pearson was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings with the 30th-overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. He debuted with the club one season later, netting seven points in 25 games of his rookie year. Pearson grew those numbers to back-to-back, 40-point seasons in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaign. He reached that feat once more in 2019-20, his first year in Vancouver, but has otherwise failed to crack into his team’s top-nine. He will be a responsible, depth forward to help Buffalo keep afloat as they approach their first postseason in over a decade.
Morning Notes: Thomas, Blue Jackets, Belchetz
The Philadelphia Flyers are highly unlikely to be the landing spot for St. Louis Blues star center Robert Thomas if he is traded before the deadline, The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reported today. A Flyers team source told Kurz that the team considers a trade for Thomas “completely unreasonable,” and with that feeling likely a result of the high price the Blues have set for teams interested in Thomas. According to Kurz, the Flyers “would probably have to be willing to part with” one of their two young wingers with star potential (Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone) as well as a first-round pick and another young roster player. Despite a pressing organizational need for a top-line center, the Flyers, per this report, believe the Blues’ asking price to simply be too steep for them to get involved in trade talks for Thomas.
Of course, value is in the eye of the beholder. From the Blues’ perspective, they’re likely to believe their high asking price for Thomas to be entirely fair. To an extent, it’s easy to see why. Thomas is an established No. 1 center who scored 81 points in 70 games last season, a 95-point 82-game scoring pace. While his production is down this year, the Blues’ struggles as a team this season make it difficult to pin Thomas’ decline entirely on some lasting decrease in his talent level. Thomas is 26 years old and has five additional seasons on a $8.125MM AAV contract. His below-market cap hit presents a serious opportunity for a team to get surplus value from him, especially as the upper limit rises.
There’s an argument to be made that, combining his talent and contract status, Thomas is one of the more valuable players to have been shopped on the in-season trade market in some time, so it’s understandable that the Blues would want to fetch a high price for the player. Value is all about leverage, after all, and the fact that the Blues can simply retain Thomas for the next half-decade gives them considerable leverage in comparison to a team shopping a rental player. But in any case, the Flyers have to move forward with the path they feel is best for them – and if they deem the Blues’ asking price too high, that is their right. Their search for a first-line center may yet continue in the 2026 draft, or perhaps within the continued development of recent first-rounders Jett Luchanko and Jack Nesbitt.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Insider Frank Seravalli reported this morning that the Blue Jackets continue to receive trade inquiries centered around pending UFA forwards Charlie Coyle and Mason Marchment, though to this point, that trade interest has been turned away. Both players have been stellar since being traded to the Blue Jackets, with Marchment scoring 10 goals and 17 points in 18 games, and Coyle nabbing 16 goals and 46 points in 60 games. The Blue Jackets traded second and fourth-round picks for Marchment earlier this season, but could receive more than they invested given the player’s uptick in form since arriving in Ohio. They traded quality prospect Gavin Brindley alongside second and third-round picks for Coyle this past summer, but could receive similar, if not increased, value in return before the deadline. The issue with trading either player would be that it would signal a retreat on their playoff chase for the rest of the season. Columbus sits three points behind the Boston Bruins for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and has gone 13-2-1 since hiring Rick Bowness as their head coach.
- Top 2026 NHL Draft prospect Ethan Belchetz will miss the rest of the season after suffering a broken left clavicle, per an announcement from his team, the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. Belchetz was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 OHL Priority Selection, and will finish his season with 34 goals and 59 points in 57 games. The 17-year-old stands 6’5″, 226 pounds, and projects as the kind of power forward who blends physicality and scoring ability that NHL teams covet. He has been ranked around the back-end of the top-10 in this year’s class, but it remains to be seen how his draft stock might change despite playing his final game before the draft.
Wild Claim Robby Fabbri, Place Tyler Pitlick On Waivers
March 3: Pitlick passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman.
March 2: The Minnesota Wild have found a depth forward upgrade on the waiver wire. Minnesota has claimed St. Louis Blues winger Robby Fabbri off of waivers and, in a corresponding move, placed Tyler Pitlick on waivers to clear roster space, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Fabbri will join former Blues teammate Vladimir Tarasenko in his move to the Wild.
Fabbri signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Blues in December after beginning the year with three games and two points, with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He slotted into a fourth-line role – but routinely stepped up in the lineup – in his return to St. Louis, where he spent the first four years of his career. Fabbri racked up four points, 12 penalty minutes, and a minus-three in 15 games with the Blues before landing on waivers. His waiver designation came in conjunction with Robert Thomas‘ return from a month-long absence due to injury and personal leave.
Fabbri was a first-round pick for the Blues in 2014. He made his NHL debut two seasons later and posted what’s become a career-year right out of the gates – marked by a career-high 18 goals and 37 points in 72 games. Fabbri’s career was quickly derailed by multiple knee injuries, holding him out of over 100 games between 2016 and 2020. Despite that, Fabbri stuck in the lineup long enough to seal a Stanley Cup victory with the Blues in 2019, netting a combined seven points in 42 games between the 2018-19 regular season and playoffs.
Fabbri will rival fourth-line minutes in Minnesota. Pitlick recorded only two goals, along with 24 penalty minutes and a minus-four, in 32 games with Minnesota this season. He has also scored 11 points in 12 AHL games this season. Pitlick spent the entire 2024-25 season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. He finished the year ranked third on the team in scoring, with 46 points in 59 games. Pitlick rotated through NHL extra forward roles between 2013 and 2024 – making appearances with seven different clubs, including the Blues and Edmonton Oilers. In total, Pitlick has scored 58 goals and 111 points in 452 NHL games. He will return to a productive role in the minor leagues, if no team finds a need for his depth services in the NHL.
Kraken Sign, Reassign Gustav Olofsson
March 3: Olofsson has cleared waivers, per Friedman. The team confirmed he’s been sent back to Coachella Valley
March 2: The Seattle Kraken have continued their run of new contracts by signing defenseman Gustav Olofsson to a one-year, $775K contract. Olofsson is currently playing in the first year of a two-year, AHL contract signed with the Coachella Valley Firebirds in July 2025. This deal will bump him back up to an NHL, two-way contract – mirroring the contract details of his last deal with the Kraken: a two-year, two-way, league-minimum contract signed in 2023. Olofsson’s last NHL contract paid him $350K in minor-league salary. He will earn a bump in pay – up to $460K – in minor-league salary on this deal per PuckPedia.
With his promotion from an AHL deal to an NHL deal, the 31-year-old Olofsson will have to clear NHL waivers. He has been placed on the waiver wire per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Olofsson has served as an alternate captain with Coachella Valley for the last four seasons. Unlike in previous years, he has found a new scoring touch this season, racking up 16 points in 29 games played – third-most on the Firebirds defense behind Tyson Jugnauth and Ty Nelson. A chunk of that scoring has come over Olofsson’s last eight games, where he’s racked up five points, 10 penalty minutes, and a plus-five.
Seattle has not recalled Olofsson since the 2023-24 season. Prior to his time in Seattle, Olofsson earned extended looks in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild, including 41 games in the 2017-18 season. In total, Olofsson has racked up no goals and 11 assists in 63 games and six seasons in the NHL. His role has often been focused on the defensive side of the puck, where his long reach and big frame help close off opponents breaking into the zone. The Kraken will ensure a bit more defensive depth with this move, though it’s not likely to change Olofsson’s role in the Coachella Valley lineup for the foreseeable future.
Kings’ Quinton Byfield Sustains Upper-Body Injury
The Los Angeles Kings were without yet another top forward in Monday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. Quinton Byfield sat out of the match with an upper-body injury per a team release. It was Byfield’s second absence of the season. The Kings awarded rookies Jared Wright and Kenny Connors with their NHL debuts in relief of the injured Byfield and Andrei Kuzmenko.
It is not clear what the source of Byfield’s injury was. Either way, his absence left the Kings scrambling to fill yet another top-six role, after losing Kevin Fiala to a season-ending injury during the 2026 Winter Olympics. Byfield has made his presence felt in the return from break, with three points in three games since Los Angeles took back to the ice. He has averaged 20 minutes of ice time throughout the season and earned 13 goals, 33 points, and a minus-five in 58 games.
Byfield is scoring at a 47-point pace this season, a step below the pace that led him to 55 and 54 points over the last two seasons respectively. He has stayed a central piece of the Kings’ offense despite that, averaging more ice time than any Kings forward and taking the second-most faceoffs on the team. Byfield’s impact away from the scoresheet has helped the Kings make up for a down year from franchise legend Anze Kopitar, who has only 24 points in 45 games.
Should Byfield need to miss extended time with this absence, the Kings will need to heap even more responsibility onto recent, superstar addition Artemi Panarin. The former New York Rangers scoring leader has notched three assists in his first four games with the Kings. He looked like a dangerous addition to Byfield’s wing but will now serve next to Kopitar, while Alex Turcotte and Connors earn bumps into the middle-six. Neither Connors nor Wright earned a point in their first NHL game but both could have another crack at scoring with injuries piling up in Los Angeles.
Avalanche’s Artturi Lehkonen Leaves Game Injured, Will Miss Time
The Colorado Avalanche went down a winger early into Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. Winger Artturi Lehkonen left the game in the first period after a puck caught him up high. He had only played three shifts and just under four minutes of ice time. After the game, head coach Jared Bednar shared that Lehkonen will “miss some time” with an upper-body injury per Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette.
Lehkonen has filled an important role in his fourth full season in Colorado. He has averaged just under 19 minutes of ice time each game, and reached a career-high scoring pace in the role. Lehkonen has 19 goals and 42 points in 59 games, putting him on pace for 26 goals and 58 points across a full 82-game season. Both of those marks would be new career-highs, surpassing the 21 goals and 51 points he scored in 64 games of the 2022-23 campaign.
Lehkonen has found that extra scoring gear while serving as the left-winger next to Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas on Colorado’s top, even-strength line. The trio have played nearly 475 minutes together this season, over 340 minutes more than any other Avalanche line. Together they have outscored opponents by a staggering 38-to-16.
With Lehkonen set for the shelf, Colorado will face the tough question of how to rework their most consistent line. Captain Gabriel Landeskog will likely move to a top-line role but which extra forward will step into the lineup isn’t clear. Colorado is not currently carrying a healthy, extra forward – so they’ll need to make a recall to find some added help. Left-winger Taylor Makar has received the most NHL action of any of Colorado’s minor-leaguers, with 12 NHL games and no scoring this season. He could be the favorite for a short-term, NHL role. Colorado could also look for a bit more scoring spark from a player like Alex Barre-Boulet, who leads the AHL’s Colorado Eagles with 54 points in 52 games and scored a point in his only NHL game this season.
San Jose Sharks Open To Trading Kiefer Sherwood
The San Jose Sharks “are now open” to trading winger Kiefer Sherwood before the NHL trade deadline comes on Friday, per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston. The Sharks have been unable to secure Sherwood’s signature on a contract extension to this point, and it appears that, “rather than risking losing him for nothing,” the team is considering flipping Sherwood just six weeks after acquiring him from the Vancouver Canucks.
Sherwood was dealing with an upper-body injury when he was dealt from the Canucks, an injury that kept him sidelined for nearly a month. He got into San Jose’s final game before the Olympic break, and has played in their three games since returning.
While it’s certainly a challenge for some offensive players to change teams and keep up their production, as so much of creating offense in the NHL is based on instincts and chemistry, something that can take time to develop in a new environment, the Sharks have undoubtedly placed Sherwood in a position to succeed. He played their most recent game on the team’s top line, skating alongside Macklin Celebrini, who is one of the game’s foremost young talents, and another emerging star in Will Smith. Despite that favorable deployment, and heavy power play time, Sherwood hasn’t been able to register on the scoresheet as a Shark.
His performance in the admittedly small sample of games in San Jose is notable, but what’s far more notable is the difficulty the team has had signing Sherwood to an extension. A team is unlikely to consider flipping a player just because he’s taking some time to adjust to new surroundings and rediscover his production, but the threat of losing a player as a UFA is a far more pressing concern.
In January, we covered reports coming out of San Jose suggesting there was a “sizable gap” between Sherwood’s demands on his new contract, and what the Sharks were willing to commit to him.
According to The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka, “Sherwood’s next contract is expected to carry an AAV of at least $5 million.” AFP Analytics projects Sherwood’s next contract to be worth $5.7MM annually on a five-year term.
It appears that, for as much as the Sharks value Sherwood’s unique value proposition as an NHL player, they may not be willing to invest so heavily in his future.
As recently as 2022-23, Sherwood was widely considered more of an AHL player. He was one of the AHL’s best players in 2021-22, scoring 36 goals and 75 points in 57 games. After signing with the Nashville Predators organization, Sherwood continued his high-scoring ways with their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, before earning 32 NHL games with the Predators.
He became a full-time NHL player the following season, and in Nashville, he was able to fully flesh out the on-ice identity that has since made him such a unique player. While he was a top scorer in the AHL, in the NHL, he began to gain more of a reputation as a physical bottom-sixer, someone who could deliver hits, get under the skin of opponents, and generally make his line a difficult one to play against.
After signing with the Canucks, his value took a leap, as he began to translate his AHL production to the NHL. He scored 19 goals and 40 points in 2024-25, and began the year with 17 goals and 23 points before the trade. The Sharks surrendered two second-round picks and AHL defenseman Cole Clayton to acquire Sherwood, and it’s unclear whether they’d be able to receive similar value if they elected to flip him.
There is some recent precedent for a team acquiring, and then flipping, a player. While Mikko Rantanen is certainly in an entirely different tier of on-ice value, limiting the applicability of the comparison, his situation with the Carolina Hurricanes last year is worth mentioning here. Once it became clear to the Hurricanes that Rantanen would not be signing an extension in Raleigh, they flipped him to the Dallas Stars and received emerging young center Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round picks.
Whether that package is similar in value to what the Hurricanes surrendered to get Rantanen is a matter of debate, but it’s clear that even with diminished leverage, the Hurricanes were still able to get several high-end assets for Rantanen.
If the Sharks elect to flip Sherwood, will their diminished leverage cause them to opt for an offer lesser than what they traded away? That’s the key question, and one that will be interesting to interrogate if Sherwood is traded. If he isn’t dealt, that could be an indication that, given the offers that may have been on the table, San Jose believes keeping Sherwood as a rental player is a more attractive path forward than recouping some future assets.
Photos courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
Predators’ Adam Wilsby Out Week-To-Week
Nashville Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby will be unavailable for Monday’s afternoon matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. He has been designated as out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Wilsby left Nashville’s Saturday loss to the Dallas Stars in the second period. It was not clear when he sustained his injury.
The Predators will have to shake up their blue-line with Wilsby on the shelf. Nicklaus Perbix and Nicolas Hague earned extra minutes to fill the gap on Saturday but it will be Justin Barron who benefits most from the lineup hole. Barron only appeared in two games in the month of February. He recorded one assist, a plus-two, and three shots on net while filling a bottom-pair role. On the year, Barron has racked up five assists and a minus-four in 32 games. Those marks are a slight dip from the 12 points and minus-14 that Barron managed in 45 games with the Predators last season, after a December trade moved him to Nashville from the Montreal Canadiens.
Barron should be able to match Wilsby’s scoring production if he rediscovers last year’s totals. Wilsby has 12 points in 45 games of his own this season, coupled with a minus-three. He has proven to be an impactful defensive-defenseman down Nashville’s lineup, using a big frame and active stick to defend the rush and spark breakouts. Wilsby is in his first season in a full-time, NHL role after breaking into the league last season. He split 2024-25 between 23 games in the NHL and 13 games in the AHL, netting five points in each league. Nashville will get a chance to test the younger Barron in the short future but will likely move back to Wilsby once he’s back to full health.
Devils Sign Matyas Melovsky To Two-Year, Entry-Level Contract
The New Jersey Devils have signed forward prospect Matyas Melovsky to a two-year, entry-level contract. Melovsky is playing through his first pro season with the AHL’s Utica Comets on a minor-league contract. He has three goals, 13 points, and a minus-eight in 35 games.
Melovsky, 21, was a sixth-round pick to the Devils in the 2024 NHL Draft. He earned his selection on the heels of a standout year with the QMJHL’s Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Czechia’s international U20 team. Melovsky recorded 42 assists and 60 points in 53 QMJHL games that season – but caught the most attention during the 2024 World Junior Championship. Playing on a line with Buffalo’s Jiri Kulich and Seattle’s Eduard Sale, Melovsky racked up 10 assists and 11 points in seven tournament games, good for second on the team in scoring behind Kulich’s 12 points. That mark helped push Czechia to a Bronze medal finish and earned Melovsky a must-buy status late into the draft.
The bump-and-grind forward followed his draft selection with 26 goals and 83 points in 57 games with Baie-Comeau last season. It was a stellar encore, even without a return to the World Juniors after Melovsky aged out of eligibility. With three point-per-game seasons in the QMJHL and a sizable, 6-foot-1 and 190-pound frame, Melovsky had stamped his right for a pro role. He has slotted into Utica’s top-nine this season. He has found his scoring touch recently, after a quiet start to the year, racking up seven points in his last 14 games. The Devils will acknowledge that hot streak by signing Melovsky to the first NHL contract of his career, set to begin in the 2026-27 season. That deal will give the bulky forward a chance to compete for NHL minutes as soon as his second pro season.
Five Key Stories: 2/23/26 – 3/1/26
The week before the trade deadline usually generates some notable headlines on the trade front. While there weren’t many of those, there was still some trade-related news of note in our key stories.
Kings Shake Things Up: Kings GM Ken Holland made the biggest swap before the Olympic break when he added Artemi Panarin from the Rangers. Now, he’s made the biggest move after the break (for now) as he fired head coach Jim Hiller, replacing him with associate coach D.J. Smith on an interim basis for the rest of the season. Hiller lasted a little more than two years with the top job in Los Angeles, with the team playing to a solid 93-58-24 record in that time. However, the team has struggled mightily this season offensively, leaving them on the outside of the playoff picture at the moment. Smith, in his second season in his associate role, will now be tasked with getting more out of his forward group. This will be his second time running an NHL bench after spending parts of five seasons in charge in Ottawa.
Crosby Out A Month: While he was believed to be close to suiting up in the Gold Medal game at the Olympics, Sidney Crosby won’t be playing for a while yet. The team announced that he will miss at least the next four weeks due to the lower-body injury sustained overseas. Crosby has once again been a crucial part of Pittsburgh’s attack this season, leading the way offensively with 27 goals and 32 assists in 56 games, continuing his streak of point-per-game campaigns which now stands at 21. He has also been instrumental in taking a Pittsburgh team that was expected to be a basement dweller by many to a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division. They’ll now have to find a way to hold onto it without their captain and top scorer.
Defense Swap: There was one trade of some significance in the NHL this week, a swap of blueliners as Pittsburgh sent Brett Kulak to Colorado for Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick. Kulak came over from Edmonton as part of the return for Tristan Jarry earlier this season and now joins a Colorado squad where he’ll likely suit up on their third pairing and then hit free agency this summer. Girard, meanwhile, makes nearly twice as much as Kulak while being signed through next season which explains the draft pick component of the trade as the Avs made this move in part for cap flexibility reasons. Once a consistent key cog on Colorado’s back end, Girard’s role and effectiveness have dropped in recent years so he’ll be looking for a chance to rebuild his game with Pittsburgh.
Trade To Come? This is the time of year when players will be scratched for roster-related or trade-related reasons. The latest of these is Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers, who was scratched back on Wednesday. However, these are typically followed by a trade although that has not been the case here. Instead, he is believed to have been presented with a team (thought to be Detroit) to consider waiving his trade protection for. Myers has made it known in the past how much he wants to stay in Vancouver but now, it appears it’s a matter of seeing if other teams get into the mix that he’s more open to joining before deciding on waiving that protection.
Seguin Done For The Season: The Stars were hoping that they’d be able to get Tyler Seguin back at some point in the playoffs after undergoing ACL surgery four months ago. That is no longer an option as the team filed paperwork to rule him out for the rest of the season. In doing so, they become eligible to utilize his full $9.85MM AAV through LTIR instead of the $3.82MM they had access to, the maximum allowed for players who will or could return later in the year. With nearly an extra $6MM to spend and Dallas being one of the top teams in the NHL this season, it will be interesting to see how they utilize those funds. Notably, with Jason Robertson up for a new deal in the summer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Jim Nill target an expiring contract to fill Seguin’s spot on the roster.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.