Penguins Acquire Elmer Soderblom
According to a team announcement, the Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired forward Elmer Söderblom from the Detroit Red Wings for San Jose’s 2026 third-round pick. The Red Wings have also confirmed the trade.
The writing was on the wall for Söderblom’s tenure in Detroit. Once viewed as a potential long-term fixture in Detroit’s bottom-six, Söderblom has been a frequent healthy scratch by the team this season. Due to the team’s abundance of prospects, he was overlooked on the long-term depth chart.
Still, the Penguins are taking a chance. He doesn’t have the highest offensive upside, but he has tremendous size. Throughout the past three years, Söderblom has scored 18 goals and 46 points in 99 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and six goals and 14 points in 65 games with the Red Wings.
Standing at 6’8″ tall, Söderblom will immediately become the biggest player on the Penguins’ roster, standing a few inches taller than Justin Brazeau. Unfortunately, although he has quality hands for someone of his stature, Söderblom doesn’t engage physically as much as he should. He’s amassed 128 hits over his brief NHL career, but the Penguins will likely hope he can increase those numbers to be of more value to the club.
Regardless, he’s only 24 years old and is a reasonable fit on a retooling Pittsburgh team. Despite eyeing an unexpected postseason berth this season, the Penguins were known to be targeting depth pieces with some upside. Given his age and relative skill for his size, acquiring Söderblom for a third-round pick was likely a no-brainer from Pittsburgh’s perspective.
Florida Panthers Claim Cole Reinhardt
The Vegas Golden Knights will lose one of their bottom-six forwards. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Florida Panthers have claimed Cole Reinhardt off waivers from Vegas.
Reinhardt, 26, will join the third organization of his career. The Calgary, AB native was selected 181st in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Ottawa Senators, and spent five years playing in the organization before joining the Golden Knights last summer.
Throughout his days in the Senators organization, Reinhardt was mostly an AHL talent. Across his five years with the AHL’s Belleville Senators, Reinhardt scored 54 goals and 131 points in 270 games with 275 PIMs.
Unfortunately, his role as a secondary scorer in the AHL hasn’t translated to the NHL level. He’s played 44 games for Vegas this season, scoring three goals and seven points in 44 games. Across his career, he has registered four goals and nine points in 62 games.
Still, he has remained a physical force. In his 62 career contests, Reinhardt has tallied 123 hits. Since he’s still on the younger side, and can immediately join the Panthers’ bottom-six. Florida is expected to move a few depth pieces ahead of today’s deadline, and Reinhardt will be a stopgap for the time being. He is signed through next season at a $813K cap hit, but will be owed $850K in actual salary.
New York Islanders To Acquire Brayden Schenn
The New York Islanders are finalizing a trade to acquire veteran center Brayden Schenn from the St. Louis Blues, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The Islanders have confirmed the deal. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun has reported its full terms: the Islanders are getting Schenn for a first-round pick, third-round pick, veteran forward Jonathan Drouin, and goalie prospect Marcus Gidlof. Per Andy Strickland of FanDuel Sports Network, the first-rounder going to St. Louis is Colorado’s 2026 first-round pick, the one New York acquired in the Brock Nelson trade from last season.
Per Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, the Islanders were on Schenn’s 16-team no-trade list, but Schenn has decided to allow the trade to go ahead. 
Schenn, the Blues captain, has been at the center of significant trade rumors over the last few months. His inclusion in a trade today, assuming it is completed and confirmed, is part of a wider effort by the Blues to re-organize their competitive efforts in a more future-oriented direction.
While the 34-year-old is under contract for an additional two seasons at a $6.5MM cap hit, the Blues may not believe they are in a position to legitimately compete for a Stanley Cup within that time frame. As a result, they appear to have given Schenn the chance to chase the second Stanley Cup championship of his career on Long Island.
The Islanders sit third place in the Metropolitan Division and have one of the game’s most promising young players leading their resurgence: 2025 No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer. Today’s move confirms the Islanders’ seriousness about competing for a Stanley Cup in the immediate term, even while the future face of their franchise is still just 18 years old.
The addition of Schenn provides a jolt to New York’s depth at the all-too-important center position. The club has most recently been utilizing 21-year-old Cal Ritchie as its second-line center. While the 2023 first-rounder is a promising young player, he’s not an ideal fit for that role on a team that is looking to make a deep playoff run.
Schenn, on the other hand, is an almost perfect fit for that role. While his numbers are down somewhat this year (28 points in 61 games as the Blues have struggled overall) he did manage 50 points last season and has been a steady top-six forward for much of his career. With Schenn likely to be plugged in directly to the Islanders’ second line, the team instantly becomes one of the league’s deepest teams down the middle.
With Bo Horvat manning the first line, Schenn on the second, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Casey Cizikas in the bottom-six, the Islanders not only have a strong group of four centers, they also have the flexibility to keep Mathew Barzal on the wing, where he has excelled.
While the Islanders are without question strengthened by this trade, the deal is not without some risk. Schenn turns 35 in August, and has two more years remaining on his deal. He hasn’t quite played up to the standard of a top-six center in St. Louis this season, but it’s still to be determined whether that says more about where Schenn’s game is at, or about the state of the Blues as a whole. In any case, if Schenn experiences age-related decline that impacts his playing abilities, the Islanders will have paid a hefty price for a player who isn’t what he once was.
With that said, there is also the possibility that the trade rejuvenates Schenn, and the chance to play for a playoff contender gives him something of a second wind. We’ve seen numerous veterans remain capable contributors as they progress deeper into their thirties, capably adjusting how they play to fit how they age. It’s also entirely possible Schenn goes down that path, making it so the Islanders have added a second-line center with more than two years of team control. Putting it that way, a first-rounder, third-rounder, and a prospect is hardly an unfair price to pay.
From the Blues’ perspective, the move falls in line with what has become their hockey operations department’s modus operandi: preparing for the future. With Alexander Steen set to assume lead decision-making authority, today’s trade adds at least one premium future asset to an already growing stockpile.
While they’ll surely miss Schenn both on and off the ice, the move clears the way for 2023 No. 10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky to receive even greater on-ice opportunity. If this trade can spark additional growth from Dvorsky, while also adding key draft picks and prospects to the Blues’ system, they’re likely to count it as a win.
The addition of Drouin may have been made to help balance the money being taken on by the Islanders, but there is some rationale behind his addition from the Blues’ side. Set to turn 31 this month, the odds are against him playing a role on the next contending Blues team. But with St. Louis likely to strip away further veteran talents this summer, there is the chance Drouin receives an opportunity to play regularly in the top-six in Missouri. He’s a player who never quite fit on Long Island, but excelled playing alongside Nathan MacKinnon as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. Perhaps he finds similar chemistry with Blues star Robert Thomas down the stretch.
With another year left on his deal at a $4MM cap hit, it’s not totally out of the question that Drouin seizes the opportunity ahead of him with the Blues, and becomes a trade chip for next year’s trade season, which would mean Schenn’s trade could deliver further future value to St. Louis.
Also included in this deal is Gidlof, a big goalie prospect who was a 2024 fifth-round pick. He’s been a tandem goalie in the SHL over the last two years, playing in a total of 41 games for Leksands IF. This season, he has gone 9-15-0 with an .896 save percentage. A little over a year ago, Gidlof was considered one of New York’s better prospects. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked him the No. 3 prospect in the team’s system, writing that he “has legitimate NHL upside.”
With starter Jordan Binnington‘s time in St. Louis potentially set to come to an end at some point over the summer, the inclusion of Gidlof in this deal represents further investment by the team in the future of the goalie position, a position in which the Blues have a somewhat uncertain future.
Photos courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Oilers’ Mattias Janmark Out For Season
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters today that winger Mattias Janmark has undergone an undisclosed surgery and will be out for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs (via Tony Brar of Oilers TV). He was already on long-term injured reserve, adding his $1.45MM cap hit to their pool, so there’s no cap impact for Edmonton as a result of the season-ending determination.
It’s been a season to forget for Janmark, who hasn’t played since Feb. 25 and missed significant time at the beginning of the campaign with an undisclosed issue as well. The two-way forward is relied upon more for defensive acumen and penalty-killing ice time more than offense at this stage of his career, but he’s still only contributed a goal and eight points in 43 games with a -8 rating. He’s averaging 11:51 of ice time per game, down nearly two minutes from last year, and his shorthanded ice time is down slightly. His possession impacts at 5-on-5 are quite subpar, only controlling 45.3% of shot attempts and 42.3% of expected goals.
Janmark is in the second season of a three-year, $4.35MM contract he signed to re-up with Edmonton in 2024. The Oilers initially landed him in free agency in 2022 and signed him to a pair of one-year deals before giving him a multi-year commitment.
He was valuable near the bottom of the lineup in his first year, notching 10 goals and 25 points in 65 games back in 2022-23, and he’s been a legitimate two-way factor in the Oilers’ back-to-back Stanley Cup Final runs. His regular-season performance recently has been lacking, though, and it’s led to speculation that he may end up on waivers and buried with AHL Bakersfield before the end of his deal. An injury-plagued season certainly won’t help his case as he’ll need to truly earn a roster spot in camp next fall.
Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Corey Perry
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning are acquiring veteran forward Corey Perry from the Los Angeles Kings. The trade comes a day after Frank Seravalli of Victory+ reported that Perry had made his intention known to Los Angeles that he would be interested in remaining with the organization. Both organizations have confirmed the deal.
Seravalli shared that the Kings would receive a second-round pick from the Bolts in exchange for Perry’s services. Later, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun confirmed it was Tampa Bay’s 2028 second-round pick headed back to Los Angeles.
Last offseason, Perry signed a one-year, $2MM contract with the Kings, with performance bonuses. According to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, Los Angeles recently paid Perry $250K for reaching the 50-game mark. For the remainder of the year, the Bolts will be on the hook for a $125K payment for a Round One win, a $250K for a semi-finals win, and a $125K for a Conference Final win. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period added an interesting twist to his bonus structure, sharing that the Kings are retaining 50% of his salary, which would apply to his bonuses.
It’s a return to Tampa Bay for the 21-year veteran. Perry enjoyed two years with the Lightning from 2021 to 2023, scoring 31 goals and 65 points in 163 games, averaging 12:33 of ice time in a bottom-six role. Since then, he has spent his time in the Western Conference with the Chicago Blackhawks, Edmonton Oilers, and Kings.
Although he’s far removed from being a constant threat for the Hart Trophy, Perry has remained a productive forward into his 40s. Since leaving the Lightning after the 2022-23 NHL season, Perry has registered 42 goals and 80 points in 185 games with a +5 rating.
Still, Perry’s recent runs in the Stanley Cup playoffs have become something of a running joke around the league. Since being bought out by the Anaheim Ducks after the 2018-19 campaign, Perry has reached five Stanley Cup Finals and lost each one of them.
Regardless, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t remained productive in the postseason. As he has done in the regular season, Perry has been a steady tertiary scorer in spring hockey. Since the 2019-20 postseason, Perry has scored 28 goals and 52 points in 119 playoff contests.
For Tampa Bay, the team didn’t need to add much on deadline day. The Lightning are already one of the best teams in the NHL, but it never hurts to insert additional goal-scoring, especially at the bottom of a lineup. To boot, Perry is a familiar face and will give the Bolts an extra veteran presence to lean on come playoff time.
From the Kings’ perspective, even if Perry had the desire to remain in Los Angeles for another season or two, it didn’t make much sense from an organizational perspective. Yes, Perry is productive, but he’s into his age-40 season, and the team has a decent crop of young talent that could theoretically fill the void on the bottom-six moving forward.
Still, the team is attempting to add significant draft capital. If the second-round selection is within the next two years, the Kings will have seven picks in the first two rounds of the next two drafts, exiting the Anze Kopitar era.
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
Stars Activate Roope Hintz From Injured Reserve
March 6th: According to a team announcement, the Stars have activated Hintz from injured reserve. He’ll be back in Dallas’ lineup tonight against the Colorado Avalanche.
March 3rd: Earlier today the Dallas Stars shared that Roope Hintz has landed on injured reserve due to illness, retroactive to February 25.
Since returning from the Olympic break where he represented Team Finland and won bronze, Hintz has yet to play, missing Dallas’ last three games. Impressively they’ve won all three by a combined score of 13-4, while tonight’s action in Calgary marks the fourth straight missing their center.
A player ending up on injured reserve from sickness is rare, and while it may cause concern for his health, the timeline is a factor in the decision. With Hintz off the shelf as he heals up, Dallas has an open roster spot to work with leading up to Friday’s trade deadline. The 29-year-old will be eligible to return then, as his Stars will host the Avalanche; the only team above them in the standings. Dallas is usually active at the deadline, and considering that they’re second in the league with a window as open as ever, it figures that they’ll have some reinforcements coming.
Hintz’s fifth place standing in team scoring (44 points in 52 games) is more of an indication of how deep the Stars are up front. The Finn has an elite 59.2% faceoff win rate this year, a career best by a considerable margin, as he continues to rise as a Selke level player. The scoring has tapered off a bit after back-to-back 37 goal campaigns from 2021-23, but it’s hardly an issue considering his impact in other areas, as well as the Stars’ overall firepower.
Winners of nine straight, Dallas will march ahead without Hintz, likely to return sometime around the weekend.
Panthers Acquire Vinnie Hinostroza From Wild
The Panthers have acquired winger Vinnie Hinostroza from the Wild for future considerations, the teams announced. Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report. It clears a bit of a forward logjam for Minnesota, which has already acquired Bobby Brink and Nick Foligno in separate deals this morning.
The Wild could have waived Hinostroza, but if he were claimed tomorrow, he wouldn’t have been eligible to play for his new club in the playoffs since he would have changed teams after the trade deadline. Florida likely won’t be reaching the show anyway, but Hinostroza now at least has the option to suit up if it happens.
Hinostroza arrived in Minnesota off the waiver wire last season via the Predators. He’s in the back half of a two-year, two-way deal he signed with Nashville in 2024 and will be a free agent this summer. The veteran of 460 NHL games had been mostly an AHL call-up option for the past few seasons, but had an exceptional scoring run in Milwaukee last season while on the Preds’ farm that put him back on the map. He broke camp with the Wild last fall as a result and has been a decent depth scoring presence for them this season amid a rash of injuries, posting a 3-7–10 scoring line in 48 games while seeing 10:18 of ice time per night.
With Minnesota’s forward group back near full health and their pair of additions today making him the #15 or #16 forward on the depth chart, it’s unlikely he would have played at all if he remained on the Wild’s roster down the stretch. They’ll instead do him a solid by letting him get some bottom-six reps in Florida, who’s dealing with injuries of their own and are expected to move on from a winger in A.J. Greer today, to keep getting some playing time and boost his chances for a one-way deal as a UFA this summer.
Wild Acquire Nick Foligno
In a tight battle in the Central Division, the Wild continue to add depth pieces. Frank Seravalli of Victory+ reports (Twitter link) that Minnesota is close to acquiring winger Nick Foligno from the Blackhawks. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that Chicago is only receiving future considerations in return. The teams have since confirmed the move.
The 38-year-old is in the final season of a two-year, $9MM contract. Notably, Minnesota will be picking up the full cost of his $4.5MM cap charge as Chicago no longer has any remaining salary retention slots having used two earlier this week on Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy and one last season on Seth Jones. Meanwhile, Chicago will not replace Foligno as their captain for the rest of the season; NHL.com’s Tracey Myers relays (Twitter link) that winger Tyler Bertuzzi will become an alternate captain for the remainder of the season.
Foligno has had a quiet year offensively, notching just three goals and eight assists in 37 games while also missing 21 contests due to injury. Meanwhile, his playing time has dropped sharply for the second straight year. After logging nearly 18 minutes a night in 2023-24 in his first season with the team, Foligno is now down to just 12:28 per night despite seeing playing time on Chicago’s second power play unit and being part of their penalty killing rotation. It stands to reason that his ice time will slide even more with this swap as he’s a strong candidate to be a fourth liner for Minnesota.
This move, assuming it gets finalized, would reunite Foligno with his younger brother, Marcus Foligno, giving them a chance to play together for the first time. Marcus has spent a good chunk of the season on the Wild’s fourth line as well, so on top of getting a chance to play on the same team, they might even wind up on the same line once he returns from his lower-body injury.
Armed with ample cap space at the trade deadline for the first time in a long time, GM Bill Guerin is putting it to use. This will be his fourth forward addition of the week having swung previous trades for Michael McCarron and Bobby Brink, while he also grabbed Robby Fabbri off waivers. With the roster limit no longer being in effect as of today, Minnesota now has considerable forward depth to mix and match with for specific matchups or when injuries arise. Even with those moves, they can still add more than $5MM in full-season salary, per PuckPedia, meaning that they might not be done just yet.
Vancouver Canucks To Recall Ty Mueller
The Vancouver Canucks have recalled center Ty Mueller from their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, according to CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal. The 23-year-old pivot joins the NHL roster in Vancouver just shortly after the team lost one of its established forwards; the team traded winger Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets late last night.
If Mueller gets a chance to play in some games for the Canucks on this recall, they will be the first of the 2025-26 season for him. He’s spent all year thus far at the AHL level with Abbotsford, and has scored 11 goals and 28 points in 49 games. That’s right around the scoring pace he was at last season, when he managed 12 goals and 39 points in 64 games.
Mueller has just over 100 games of pro experience to his name, but has been able to get close to being NHL-ready by quickly adapting his game to the professional level. He was a quality college hockey center at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, but it was an open question as to whether he’d have enough to make it to the NHL. He still hasn’t turned into a full-time NHL player to this point, but his progress in the AHL has been encouraging.
The Canucks will get a look at Mueller at the NHL level and be able to better ascertain how close he is to being ready for more regular duty at the game’s highest level. Entering the season, Mueller ranked as the No. 11 prospect in the Canucks’ system according to Elite Prospects.
They projected fourth-line upside for him, and it’s possible recent trade developments have heightened the Canucks’ interest in Mueller’s development. It seems as though quality defensive bottom-six centers have never been more valuable, with players such as Michael McCarron and Sam Carrick returning their teams quality draft picks in the second or third rounds.
With the Canucks set to potentially trade veteran bottom-six pivot Teddy Blueger at some point today, it appears the club might be hoping Mueller can take up an NHL role and quickly develop into the kind of reliable defensive center teams have coveted. Mueller is also a regular penalty killer in Abbotsford, and could also get a look in that role at the NHL level.
In any case, as the Canucks plunge further into a rebuild, the development of younger players such as Mueller will be a key storyline to track that will help determine the kind of timeline the Canucks will have on their road back to contention.
Wild Acquire Bobby Brink
The Wild are addressing their need for additional scoring depth by acquiring winger Bobby Brink from the Flyers, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic and Frank Seravalli of Victory+. Defenseman David Jiříček is the return headed to Philly, both add. There is no extension in place between the Wild and Brink, who’s a pending restricted free agent, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports. The trade has since been confirmed.
Brink is in the back half of a two-year, $3MM bridge deal he signed with Philly in 2024. He’ll be looking for a notable raise this summer. The 2019 second-rounder has grown into a stable top-nine piece during that time, and while he’s not the top-six center that Minnesota has been aiming for, it was clear the Wild were at least looking for a middle-six winger to augment their depth. They reportedly explored acquiring Nick Foligno from the Blackhawks, and while this doesn’t take them out of that race, it is a notable move to replenish some of the scoring upside they lost earlier this season by trading Liam Ohgren and Marco Rossi to the Canucks in the Quinn Hughes deal.
Since emerging as a full-time piece in the Flyers’ lineup back in 2023, Brink has averaged around a half a point per game. That hasn’t changed much this season with 26 in 55 games, but his finishing has taken a step forward, notching a career-high 13 tallies while shooting at 14.4% clip. He was averaging north of 15 minutes per game for Philly, playing mostly on their second line with Noah Cates and Matvei Michkov.
The inclusion of Brink, who’s still only 24, gives the Wild nine double-digit goal scorers on their roster up to this point in the season. They may still be looking for muscle near the bottom of the lineup. Brink certainly doesn’t provide that at just 5’8″ and 169 lbs, but he plays much larger than he is and is on pace for 100 hits.
For the Flyers, it’s a simple swap of young players from a position of excess to a position of need. The right-shot Jiříček now finds himself on his third team in four years since being drafted sixth overall by the Blue Jackets in 2022, but he’ll never have a clearer path to NHL minutes than he has now. The 22-year-old was on an assignment to AHL Iowa at the time of the trade, but with Rasmus Ristolainen likely on his way out of Philly today amid a rush of offers, the Flyers had a pressing organizational need for a righty who can challenge for top-four minutes.
That gives Jiříček a prime opportunity down the stretch to showcase himself in the extended ice time he’s so desperately desired to be effective. In 84 career NHL appearances over the last four years, he has a 2-11–13 scoring line and a -8 rating while averaging just 13:33 of ice time per game. Assuming Philly recalls him in short order, that number should jump closer to 20 with the potential for power-play opportunity, something Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports reports played a role in the move.