Mailbag: Kraken commerce choices earlier than Deadline, out of doors recreation concepts – NHL.com

NHL.com's Dan Rosen solutions weekly questions
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Right here is the Feb. 21 version of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, the place we reply your questions requested on X. Ship your inquiries to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom and tag it with #OvertheBoards.
Do the Seattle Kraken go into a fireplace sale by the commerce deadline, or do they keep put? Names that might probably be moved: Jordan Eberle (UFA), Tomas Tatar (UFA), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (UFA), Justin Schultz (UFA), Chris Driedger (UFA, presumably having his contract retained for the rest of the season). — @LittlestOfMen
It is too early for the Kraken to be prepared for a fireplace sale. It was an enormous deal that they made the Stanley Cup Playoffs final season, and it is going to be in the event that they qualify once more. They’re making an attempt to determine a profitable tradition and constantly making the playoffs goes a great distance towards that. They’re three factors out of a playoff spot with factors in three straight video games (2-0-1) and opened a six-game homestand with a 4-3 additional time loss to the Detroit Pink Wings on Monday. Their subsequent 5 video games are in opposition to Vancouver Canucks, Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers.
That takes them by means of March 2, six days earlier than the 2024 NHL Commerce Deadline (3 p.m. ET on March 8), and by then we might know much more in regards to the Kraken. They will not get a blockbuster return in any commerce involving Eberle, Tatar, Alex Wennberg (additionally a pending unrestricted free agent), Bellemare, Schultz and Driedger except it turns into a much bigger deal. If the thought is to commerce them as leases, it is price holding onto them by means of this homestand earlier than any selections are made.
MetLife was unbelievable this previous weekend. I ponder if the NHL can study one thing from this. Guide a Stadium Collection on a weekend in February yearly; 4 groups in two video games in a rivalry matchup. Might be necessary video games because it’s near April. Ideas on this? Hold it in February to forestall going in opposition to the NFL playoffs. May even do it on Hockey Day in America in February. 4 workforce combos might be like this previous weekend, however future might be Toronto, Boston, Montreal and Ottawa, or three California groups and Vegas; Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle; Colorado, Dallas, Nashville, Chicago. Numerous concepts. — @FrankBrodka
Numerous concepts. All attention-grabbing. That is the great thing about the NHL’s out of doors recreation bonanza; nothing is off the desk. Nevertheless, I’ve my reservations about your concepts.
Final weekend in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was particular with greater than 150,000 followers seeing two common season video games in lower than 24 hours. It was additionally distinctive in the truth that the 4 taking part groups are all shut to 1 one other and, most necessary, to MetLife Stadium. It was straightforward for followers of the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers to get there Saturday, and for followers of the New York Islanders and New York Rangers on Sunday. They may drive or take public transportation proper to the stadium. They did not have to remain in a single day in a resort. Perhaps some Flyers followers determined to do this in the event that they needed to drive the hour-and-a-half to 2 hours to get there, but it surely wasn’t a should. They may have completed it as a day journey, notably with the 8 p.m. ET begin time.
Nevertheless, when you maintain two Stadium Collection video games involving 4 groups at, for instance, Soldier Discipline in Chicago or Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, it’s going to require followers of the three different groups to spend extra cash on journey and lodging along with tickets. That might be an enormous ask.
Relive the perfect moments from the Stadium Collection
When the NHL levels out of doors video games, they’re tailor-made to the market they’re in and lots of the followers attending are from that native market. You’ll get followers of the opposition or simply merely followers of hockey, touring in from out of city, but it surely’s not sufficient of them to fill an enormous soccer stadium. In case you have two video games in a market the place there is just one NHL workforce, then one of many video games can be performed with no workforce from that market. It is asking quite a bit for followers of these two groups to fill the venue. It possible will not occur, but it surely occurred at MetLife Stadium as a result of it is within the middle of a market with three groups and really near a fourth.
The a method I can see this working is that if there have been back-to-back Stadium Collection video games at Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles Kings the house workforce in one of many video games and the Anaheim Geese within the different. The Geese and Kings share the Southern California market, so their followers could be the bulk at their video games. Then you definitely’d be asking followers from, in your instance, the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights, to return to a street recreation, however not less than there can be a real dwelling workforce.
What ought to Tampa Bay do on the deadline? — @MChockey19
The Tampa Bay Lightning have an $8.5 million-sized gap at defenseman that needs to be stuffed. Mikhail Sergachev will not be again this season due to his leg harm, so the Lightning want to interchange him in the event that they wish to be a severe contender this season.
The very best candidate to interchange what Sergachev does for the Lightning is Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin, a pending unrestricted free agent. Hanifin has reportedly had an eight-year contract supply from the Flames for a while now, however the truth he hasn’t signed that but suggests he is not keen on staying in Calgary. If that is the case, the Flames will commerce him. The Lightning, although, might not have what the Flames need. And that is their greatest challenge.
Tampa Bay has depleted belongings, decreased their draft-pick capital by means of trades in earlier seasons. They don’t have a first- or second-round decide within the 2024 NHL Draft, or a first-round decide within the 2025 NHL Draft. Odds are the Flames will be capable of get a first-round decide from one other workforce in a commerce for Hanifin. They’re reportedly in search of not less than a first-round decide in a commerce for Chris Tanev, one other pending UFA. If the requirement to get both of them is a first-round decide, it removes the Lightning from the equation except they make extra trades that convey one again.
The Lightning also needs to be checking in with the Flyers about Sean Walker and Nick Seeler, the Nashville Predators about Tyson Barrie and the Montreal Canadiens about David Savard, who shouldn’t be a pending UFA however has beforehand performed for Tampa Bay. The necessity for the Lightning earlier than Sergachev’s harm was bottom-six ahead depth. That is still a necessity. Perhaps they will fill each, however the acquisition price is a matter.
STL@CGY: Hanifin’s one-timer makes it 2-1 within the 2nd
Largest want for the New York Rangers proper now: High three proper wing, protection or goaltending? Is Igor Shesterkin the reply for them? — @JNevs27
I am going to skip proper by the Shesterkin query as a result of I do not suppose it is honest to ask if he is the reply. He is probably not having a dynamite season, however with Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, goaltending is absolutely the least of the Rangers’ issues. You did not convey up their greatest space of want, which is No. 3 middle.
The third line with Jonny Brodzinski within the center, Kaapo Kakko on the fitting wing and Will Cuylle on the left wing has been strong up to now few weeks. There is not any arguing that, however within the playoffs the highest two strains typically can cancel one another out in a seven-game collection, leaving the third line to be a difference-maker. With due respect to Brodzinski, he has for his whole profession been a borderline NHL participant, which is why he has been within the American Hockey League so typically. He is tremendous for the Rangers as a 6-foot, 204-pound depth ahead, however third-line middle is a premium place for a playoff workforce, and they’d profit from a extra versatile, bodily, bigger-body presence in that place within the absence of Filip Chytil (6-2, 208).
If the Rangers get that, I believe they might go away Jimmy Vesey as the fitting wing on the highest line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider and be ok with it. Vesey will hunt pucks and he has the offensive and defensive instincts to play with Kreider and Zibanejad. If they will improve at third-line middle and first-line proper wing by means of trades, then that may be even higher. I addressed that final week, however prioritizing the middle place makes essentially the most sense.

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