Buy or Sell Latest Rumors 17 Days from the NHL Trade Deadline

There's no trade season like NHL trade season.

Though other sports have their in-season trade deadlines and transaction activity does tend to pick up as they grow closer, hockey, as in many ways, is a different animal.

The off-ice buzz about on-ice personnel moves begins for the next year as soon as it's done for the current year, and much of the chatter out there about players these days can be traced back to sometime last winter.

Needless to say, it's among the most wonderful times of the year for the B/R hockey team.

Its latest endeavor was to scan the rumor horizon as we sit 17 days out from March 8 and decide which ones are worthy of purchase and which should be left on the rack.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

It's been a recurring theme in Calgary.

For what feels like years now, the Flames have had players nearing the ends of contracts, and the buzz surrounding them is that they're not interested in staying in Alberta.

Johnny Gaudreau left for Columbus. Matthew Tkachuk was traded to Florida before he could follow his teammate out the door. And already this season, Elias Lindholm was dealt to Vancouver a few months before his deal expired.

The next item up for bids? Noah Hanifin.

The 27-year-old defenseman was the fifth overall pick in 2015, and, ironically, landed in Calgary in the same deal that brought Lindholm from Carolina after the 2017-18 season.

He's been a steady contributor ever since, logging better than 20 minutes per game while maintaining a plus-43 rating through five-and-a-half seasons.

He's also nearing the end of the six-year, $29.7 million contract he signed after the trade and hasn't expressed full-throated interest in staying put. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman went public Saturday with his thought that Hanifin will be dealt before March 8 and that the Boston native will ultimately sign a long-term deal with a U.S.-based team.

Buy or Sell: Buy. Buy. Buy.

It'd be our advice about Hanifin to a contending team looking for a blue-liner, and it'll be what Flames fans are chanting, albeit with a different spelling (see what we did there...), when the departure gate opens at Calgary International Airport on March 8 or before. There's simply too much smoke here for there not to be a fire.

Scott Laughton, at least in hockey terms, is a "Philly Guy."

He was drafted by the Flyers in 2012, made his NHL debut with them the following January, and has been a full-time player in black and orange for most of the 10 seasons since.

He's not near the statistical league leaders page on NHL.com, but he goes to the hard areas, plays the hard minutes, and sets an example both on the ice and in the locker room.

And around this time every year, his name starts coming up in rumors.

Not because he's a transcendent scorer who'll provide a jolt to a contending team's offense, but instead because he'll be one of those glue guys that Cup-hoisting teams are perpetually crediting with doing the dirty work that helped them get through a 16-win playoff grind.

The annual rumor routine got started in earnest last week when The Athletic suggested that a Metropolitan Division rival, the New York Rangers, might be interested in acquiring Laughton and the two full seasons remaining on his contract (at $3 million per) to satisfy GM Chris Drury's desire to add more grit to an uber-skilled lineup.

Buy or Sell: Sell

It's hard to believe the Flyers would publicly bail on a season that had them third in the Metropolitan and five points ahead of the Eastern playoff line through Sunday's games. Could it happen if the Rangers offer a first-rounder and a prospect? Sure. But it's unlikely Drury goes that big here when other options are available outside of the division.

Last year, the New Jersey Devils were the surprise of the league.

They went from 28th overall the season before to third in 2022-23 and eliminated the rival New York Rangers in the playoffs before bowing to the Carolina Hurricanes, who'd finished a point ahead of them in the standings, in Round 2.

So there was plenty of reason for over-the-top optimism this time around.

Yet, through Sunday's games at least, it hasn't seemed warranted.

The Devils, to be fair, have been hit particularly hard by injuries to Jack Hughes and others, but it doesn't change the reality that they're on the outside looking in at the moment—two points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild-card spot in the East.

The easy reason? Goaltending.

Neither Vitek Vanecek (.890 save percentage, 3.18 goals-against average) nor Akira Schmid (.893, 3.26) have been particularly good as holdovers in New Jersey, necessitating the recent arrival of 23-year-old Nico Daws, a 2020 draft pick, from the AHL.

Predictably, that has rumors swirling that the team will dip into the available goalie market to gird for the stretch drive, with names like John Gibson, Kaapo Kahkonen, Elvis Merzlikins and others working their way into the conversation.

Buy or Sell: Sell

We think GM Tom Fitzgerald will attack from a different direction. A quick look at the stats shows the Devils are allowing 30.3 shots per game this season, up more than two per 60 minutes from 28.2 in 2022-23. If that continues, the goalies may not matter. But if New Jersey chases a top-two or top-four defenseman, those same guys will look like winners.

Jake Guentzel is having himself a complicated winter.

He'd already been a subject of trade rumors because of his status as an imminent free agent and the competitive reality in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins, even with Guentzel and Sidney Crosby performing at a high level, stood 11th in the Eastern Conference through last Thursday.

And then he got hurt.

The team placed him on injured reserve with an upper-body issue apparently suffered during the third period of a loss to Florida, meaning he'll be out for about four weeks. It's certainly a huge blow to the team's playoff hopes and obviously muddies the waters when it comes to a trade, given that he won't play until the week of the actual deadline, if at all.

The scuttlebutt surrounding a deal remains strong, though, as evidenced by a Monday podcast in which TRIBLive columnist Mark Madden said a Sunday loss to the Los Angeles Kings "signs Jake Guentzel's exit papers. You can't keep him, especially now. They're just not very good. You can't let Jake leave for nothing, with no tangible end to be gained by keeping him. So I think you've got to trade him."

Buy or Sell: Buy

Injury or no, Madden's right. Because a deal to keep Guentzel as the face of the franchise hasn't already been reached, it seems he's destined to go. And with the Penguins slogging through a season of irrelevance, it makes even more sense to get something for him. The injury is ill-timed to be sure, but Guentzel's too good for teams not to be interested.

When it comes to the NHL, Marc-Andre Fleury has done it all.

He's been a No. 1 overall pick. He's won three Stanley Cups and a Vezina Trophy. He's been claimed in an expansion draft. He's been traded twice. He's made millions of dollars.

These days, he's 39 years old and recently moved into second place on the all-time list for goalie victories, where his 554 career wins (through Sunday) trail only New Jersey legend Martin Brodeur's mark of 691.

He's biding his time these days with the Minnesota Wild, making 25 appearances and 22 starts while posting a .902 save percentage and a 2.83 goals-against average. The Wild at the moment are on the fringe of the playoff race, sitting four points off the Western cut line.

He's also in the final year of a two-year, $7 million contract, which makes trade chatter logical, particularly in a goalie-starved market and with a guy with Fleury's substantial track record.

TSN's Pierre LeBrun said last week that Fleury has a short list of contenders to which he could be moved, including the Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche—each of whom has been looking for high-end stability in the goal crease.

Buy or Sell: Sell...for now

LeBrun said Fleury's loyalties, for the moment at least, lie with the Wild. He's interested in getting Minnesota into the playoffs rather than bolting, which means the next several weeks could be crucial. If the situation improves by March 1, the guess here is he stays put. But if they remain outside the pack by then, expect him to be packing a suitcase.