2024 Eastern Conference team-by-team Trade Deadline Objectives

Credit: Jakob Chychrun (© Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports)

With less than two months remaining until the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline, we’ve got you covered with one deadline-focused story each day at Daily Faceoff.

Today we’re going to key in on each team’s top objectives in the Eastern Conference:

2024 Trade Deadline Countdown: 58 Days

Let’s break the Eastern Conference down into categories by their expected deadline posture:

The Buyers

Boston Bruins
Top Objective: First line center
Scoop: For a team that lost Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in one summer, the Bruins have barely missed a beat in the regular season, holding down the top spot in the Atlantic Division nearly wire to wire through the first half of the season. Charlie Coyle has been excellent. Morgan Geekie and Matthew Poitras have punched above their weight class. But even for a team with a couple elite wingers, there is a big disparity between the spoked-B and their playoff counterparts in strength down the middle. Elias Lindholm sure would be nice. One problem: Boston is limited in assets to trade to acquire that piece, without first, second or third-round picks this year, or a second in 2025.

Carolina Hurricanes
Top Objective: Find the value
Scoop: If you look back in the Carolina Hurricanes’ playbook under Tom Dundon’s stewardship, the Canes don’t typically go into an acquisition period with a plan to swing big. They peruse the market and try to find the best deal possible, typically in a player that they feel might be undervalued by either the market or his current club. That might be at forward, defense or goaltender. They look to improve at all areas. Yes they did take a serious run at Timo Meier last year, but then checked down once he went to New Jersey. Instead of pushing their chips to the middle, the Canes haven’t made a deadline splash since 2020. Dundon explained he views playoff success as somewhat luck dependent and wants his team to not sacrifice future chances to win to load up for one specific run.

Florida Panthers
Top Objective: Third pair, right-shot defenseman
Scoop: Take a peek at the Panthers’ roster and tell me where you see a hole? It certainly isn’t at forward, where the Cats have mauled the opposition this season. It’s not in net, where Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz are holding their own, with Spencer Knight waiting in the AHL. Their defense was tremendous without Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, and now they’re both back, leaving everyone comfortably slotted. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been an unreal addition. Perhaps the only area to nitpick would be to find a replacement for Dmitry Kulikov, who has been fine, but is prone to the big mistake. This roster seems ready to compete for the Cup again as is.

New Jersey Devils
Top Objective: Replenish the blue line
Scoop: Some might look at the Devils’ 32nd-ranked goaltending and say New Jersey desperately needs an upgrade in goal. That may be the case. Or it might be a chicken-and-the-egg type argument considering the state of their blue line. Is it the goaltending that’s struggled, or has the defense let the Devils down? The changes year-over-year are massive. They said goodbye to Damon Severson and Ryan Graves. Then lost Dougie Hamilton for the season with a torn pectoral muscle. And now Jonas Siegenthaler is out. No team can withstand that much trauma and compete for a Cup – no matter how well Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec have played. The question is: given all of that, how aggressive will New Jersey be? Or is this just not their year? They have Hamilton’s LTIR money to play with.

New York Rangers
Top Objective: Third line center
Scoop: The loss of Filip Chytil looms large for the Blueshirts. After collecting six points in 10 games to start the year, Chytil has returned home to Czechia to continue his recovery from a concussion. He doesn’t appear to be returning to the lineup any time soon. Coupled with the absence of Kaapo Kakko on that third line, the Rangers have a couple holes in their top nine that at times have forced Peter Laviolette to rely more heavily on their top two lines. That is less than ideal. The good thing for New York is there are a few 3Cs available in Sean Monahan, Adam Henrique and Kevin Hayes, all at varying price points.

Toronto Maple Leafs
Top Objective: Multiple defenders
Scoop: So far, John Klingberg’s $4.15 million LTIR money hasn’t burnt a hole in GM Brad Treliving’s pocket. The first priority was getting William Nylander extended. Now, they’re in the process of examining their goalie situation with Ilya Samsonov. Do they need an upgrade there? We know they need an upgrade on the backend, which has performed admirably with players like Simon Benoit and William Lagesson stepping up. We know Treliving tried to pull off a swap with Calgary to bring in both Nikita Zadorov and Chris Tanev. That $4.15 million could go a long way toward getting multiple pieces – and even further if they can move Samsonov’s $3.55 million.

Only God and Lou Know

New York Islanders
Top Objective: ?????
Scoop: Ah, yes, the Islanders – one of life’s great mysteries. It’s a fool’s errand to try and guess what Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders might be working on. However, they are firmly entrenched in the playoff chase, and they’ve got a goaltender in Ilya Sorokin who has not only saved their season – but gives them an authentic chance to win rounds. Given that they’ve been so active trying to add to the blue line (Mike Reilly on waivers, trading for Robert Bortuzzo), the hunch would be on defense. Chris Tanev feels like such a Lamoriello addition, doesn’t he?

Hold The Line

Pittsburgh Penguins
Top Objective: Give ’em a chance
Scoop: Penguins ownership has made it clear that they’d like to give this core every opportunity to try and compete for a Stanley Cup, as evidenced by last summer’s trade for Erik Karlsson. If that is the case – which it still should be considering they’re right in the thick of the playoff race – then doesn’t Kyle Dubas owe them every inch of runway to get in? There has been lots of talk about the availability of Jake Guentzel, an elite scoring winger. A decision on him should come down to the wire. If the Penguins are squarely out, then they have to trade the one chip they have to jumpstart the rebuild. If not? Stay tuned.

Tampa Bay Lightning
Top Objective: Play it out
Scoop: GM Julien BriseBois is aggressive, so it’s difficult to fully handicap where the Lightning go. Today, the Lightning sit out of a playoff spot by points percentage, but are in on points. Translation: They’re right there. They’ve got an aging core, but it’s a team that with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov doing Hart-caliber things on a nightly basis, could still be a legitimate threat to get out of the East. Count them out at your own peril. BriseBois has made big deadline splashes the last couple of years including Tanner Jeannot, Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel. This year, there aren’t many assets or prospects left to spend.

It’s Complicated

Buffalo Sabres
Top Objective: Find veteran help
Scoop: It’s no secret that the Sabres have been one of the league’s biggest disappointments this season. They placed a lot of bets on young players continuing to take the next step – some before they were ready (Devon Levi) and some that have struggled (Tage Thompson). Yes, GM Kevyn Adams can trade off pieces like Victor Olofsson, Jordan Greenway or even send Erik Johnson to a contender. But it’s clear from here that Buffalo needs some veteran help. They need to find dependable, reliable players from winning organizations who are good citizens that can help impact their team without scoring – on things like structure and penalty kill.

Detroit Red Wings
Top Objective: Passive buyer
Scoop: The Wings have taken a step forward and have been much more competitive this season, a disastrous December notwithstanding. Perhaps the best word to describe Detroit is: “average.” They’re not excellent in any one area of the game, and they aren’t abysmal in any one facet of the game, either. They’re just there. Given that GM Steve Yzerman went out and reeled in free agent Patrick Kane, it’s entirely possible that Yzerman will continue to tinker and add to the group. It’s not really the time to go big. And the Wings could sell, but that might not send the right message to the market when they’ve been trying to build it brick by brick.

Ottawa Senators
Top Objective: Identify core pieces
Scoop: Yes, the Senators have been one of the more active teams making calls over the last number of weeks as Steve Staios assumes the permanent GM role. The key for Ottawa is in properly identifying their core moving forward. They’ve got a slew of fantastic young pieces that check various positional boxes. They’ve also drastically underachieved this season and need a path forward. With five players scheduled to make $8 million or more next season, plus a logjam on the left side of their defense, there are decisions to be made. None bigger than correctly identifying who is part of the solution and who is part of the problem.

Washington Capitals
Top Objective: Fish or cut bait
Scoop: For a team outside the playoff picture, it feels odd to say that the Capitals have exceeded expectations, but they were an 80-point team last year and are on track for a 14-point improvement. That speaks to how good Spencer Carbery has been as coach. But what are the Caps at this stage with father time catching up to Alex Ovechkin? Are they going to be adding to the group? Planning for the future? Trying to do both at the same time? If they make the playoffs, are they considered a threat? Questions abound. If they decide to sell, they will have teams lined up for Nic Dowd, who has another year left at a great cap number.

The Sellers

Montréal Canadiens
Top Objective: Patience
Scoop: This is one of those seasons that makes selling a rebuild to a fanbase difficult. There isn’t much to be excited about at this moment: the end result seems far away, and the progress has come in fits and starts. The trade deadline in itself likely won’t even be all that exciting, outside of what the Canadiens can leverage for Sean Monahan. There is also a decision coming on the goaltending situation, with the Habs invariably parting with Jake Allen, who seems much more likely to go than Cayden Primeau. Outside of that, what else can Kent Hughes and Co. harvest from the market? Patience is a virtue.

Philadelphia Flyers
Top Objective: Maximize value on UFAs
Scoop: Well, the surprise Jamie Drysdale acquisition certainly makes the Flyers’ trade deadline approach a bit easier. As they look to re-establish a winning and competitive culture, because they’ve improved the team in the short-term by adding Drysdale, it’s certainly a little easier now to move pending UFA defensemen Sean Walker and Nick Seeler without feeling like they’ve cut the legs off a team that has been scrapping all year. They aren’t out of the mix, and may have earned a small addition, but the big picture is still very much in mind for GM Danny Briere and every additional second round pick they can stockpile is just another ticket in the lottery.

Are They Asleep At The Wheel?

Columbus Blue Jackets
Top Objective: A cohesive plan
Scoop: Woof. What a season it’s been in Columbus, arguably the most disappointing in franchise history. They made significant offseason transactions, their head coach didn’t make it to training camp, and they’ve positively been one of the worst teams in the league – all while doing a disservice to some of their top prospects. Honestly, it has all been confounding, and hard to grasp. It’s a borderline miracle that GM Jarmo Kekalainen has kept his job. The third-longest tenured manager in the league has exactly one playoff round win on his resume and that figures to be called into question – along with a host of other missteps – by ownership as the season nears a merciful finish.

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