NHL Trade Market Set to Ignite: Which Blockbuster Moves Will Shock the League?

When it comes to the NHL offseason, everyone’s buzzing about free agency – that wild free-for-all where teams scramble to sign the next big thing, right? But let me tell you, this summer, the real fireworks might not come from free agency at all. Dave Pagnotta, a sharp mind from The Fourth Period, spilled some eye-opening thoughts on TSN Radio in Montreal. He’s saying flat out that the traditional summer free agent frenzy is losing steam – teams just can’t plug their roster holes the way they used to. Instead, the trade market is gearing up to take center stage as the prime battleground for improvement. If you want to see which franchises are going to be buyers, sellers, or sitting on the fence hoping for a miracle, this is where the action will be. Trades could start heating up right around the draft in June, and frankly, it could turn this offseason upside down. Intrigued? You should be. LEARN MORE

Trade Market Could Be Better Than Free Agency

Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joined TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about Free Agency coming up this summer. He stated that all eyes will be on the trade market because that is how teams will improve.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

Host: “I’m just, you know, I’m looking at the, the free agent class for this summer, with everybody signing the free agent class. Now it’s starting to suck, Dave.”

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Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how this unfolds. Now, what it tells me is this is evolving a little bit or shifting. That if you want to make your team better, you’re going to have to be more aggressive in the trade market. And you’re going to start to see teams recognizing the fact that they’re not going to be able to plug certain holes in the summer via free agency, like they used to be able to do.

So you’re going to have to explore the trade market, and that’ll likely start to see a little bit more activity come in June, around the draft and going into July. But you’re probably looking at that type of scenario where we’re going to start to see an elevated trade market versus what we’ve seen in the past in the summer.

Host: “So, elevated trade market, can you tell us which teams you would pay closest attention to right now, both on the side of buyers and sellers?

Pagnotta: “Well, the seller side is still pretty clear. And Nashville, Vancouver, St Louis, Calgary, Buffalo, still holding out some type of hope. Calgary is, to a certain extent, but they’re still waiting to see how they’re going to get things going here. And it’s going to determine for some teams that are looking to buy or sell really, it’s going to be determined later on. Those are the sellers now.

But then you want to see some of the teams that are holding out hope, they want to know how much of that hope they should hold on to. Is it another month? Are we going to be able to see where we’re at in a month? Is that going to give us a better indication as to what type of team we’re going to be, or do we just suck it up now and say, ‘All right, let’s at least start entertaining some calls.’

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Buyers. I mean, you’re looking at all the top-tier teams right now. We’d love to further improve their chances. And then you look at some of the teams that are trying to fill specific holes. We know the Canadiens, obviously, would like someone in the top six, preferably at the center position at the 2c, that’s no secret.

But then you look at other teams that are looking to make more of a talent-for-talent swap, versus going out and potentially going after a rental. Those are the Oilers. Those are the Leafs on our side of the border. I feel Ottawa is actually in that mix as well. And then you’re looking at Utah, Seattle looking to make impactful type of moves that affect not just this season, but the future as well.

So the buyers market isn’t fully defined yet with respect to who’s just trying to focus on this season, outside of maybe the top two teams right now in Colorado and Dallas, but everybody else that is looking to add. Or a good chunk of them, anyway, are looking to do something that doesn’t necessarily only affect this season, but also has some future seasons in mind as well.”

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