the San Jose Sharks the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on December 22, 2014 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

These 5 teams need to make trades before the deadline

It is that time of year again where everyone is an armchair GM and believes they know best for each team. It is a fun exercise in practice and luckily as I have no relation to an NHL front office, I can take a look at a few teams and peg them as teams in need of a move. Let us take a look shall we?

The Three California teams

The news broke earlier today that Jiri Sekac of the Canadiens and Devante Smith-Pelly of the Ducks were swapped in a fairly minor deal but could bring what I believe to be an avalanche of activity in the Western Conference. As of this writing the Sharks and Kings are tied for third in their respective division and seem to be hovering around the bubble rather than making a real push into the playoff race.

The Kings have been rumored to be in on multiple trades involving defensemen such as Roman Polak and Andrej Sekera. While leading the league in even strength SF% they are considered by many to already be defensively strong, they could do well by adding an offensive defenseman to bring some added goal scoring on a team that is currently middling at best. Up against the cap, they will need to move assets to get assets, a tough proposition for a team that has been known to fleece teams on deadline day (sorry Blue Jacket fans).

The San Jose (Hockey) Sharks have been dangling the likes of Antti Niemi and seemingly anyone in their top 6 who has a pulse. This team tried to supposedly revamp over the summer to no avail. They wanted to add the vaunted “grit” to the team and brought in John Scott to remedy this supposed problem. They moved Brent Burns back to defense and stripped Joe Thornton of his captaincy, a summer filled with sunshine and workplace mismanagement! While needing to spread their lines out, they refuse to and have made matchups easy especially after not replacing Burns production up front. They are now trying to figure out what to add this deadline and are at a crossroads, their offense is good but not great, their defense is middling but not elite. Extremely top heavy, they need to find themselves some depth options to shore up the team offensively and defensively. Jeff Petry is a rental and not a long term fix but would be a welcome addition on many teams come deadline day. Matt Calvert is an RFA after this season and could bring some production to their bottom six.

While both of those teams have some patch work needs to be addressed, the leader in their division is the Anaheim Ducks, a team many can’t seem to peg. They moved Smith-Pelly for the skillful Sekac and seem to be making a serious push this year after bringing in Ryan Kesler this offseason. While the team is as of this writing twelve points ahead of their division rivals, they have a possession problem that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. Like the other California teams mentioned they are extremely top heavy offensively and would be wise to pick up a piece to shore up the bottom six. Bruce Boudreau while aware of his teams past puck possession problems doesn’t take much value in it which may mean the Ducks will find out the hard way how puck possession comes into play come April and May.

Boston Bruins

Our Bloguin brothers over at Days of Y’Orr have talked about the Bruins’ need to revamp and most recently even suggested a fire sale. While I don’t think a complete sell off is necessary, this iteration of the Bruins isn’t a site to behold but they do  hold some expensive pieces that could fetch a decent return and allow this team to rebuild on the fly (can’t believe I am writing that).

Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski are all due raises next offseason with Hamilton and Krug being RFA’s. It is a peculiar spot for them as all three of those players are good players that have found themselves in the Bruins top four at multiple points in time. Bartkowski is the least valuable of the bunch and won’t fetch much as he is a UFA after this season but seems to be a starting point for the Bruins’ front office as they are enamored with Kevan Millar.

Offensively the name that has been bandied about is Loui Eriksson, one of the key pieces in the Tyler Seguin trade. While he is no Tyler Seguin, he is still tied for third in points on the team, nothing to slouch at especially when a name like Bergeron is ahead of him. Which leads to another top point getter for the Bruins, Carl Soderberg, who is actually tied in points with Eriksson. Soderberg is a UFA after this season and will be due a pay increase (notice the theme here?) much higher than the 1.008 million he is commanding currently. Unless they are going to trade a large asset a la Lucic, Marchand or Chara, the cap relief is going to be minimal.

These moves for Boston are by no means optimal and more than likely put them in a worse spot than when they started the season. So why do it? Chiarelli and co have painted themselves in a corner but another option may be to let most of their bottom six walk and try to sign the defensemen on expiring deals to another set of short term deals and put off the problem. Not the best for the long term but this allows the Bruins, a team unsure of its future to delay the truly tough decisions for another couple of seasons.

Pittsburgh Penguins

This team time and time again shows us that hockey really is a team sport. They (arguably) have two of the best players on the planet but apart from playing them each thirty minutes a night they are having a very tough time in filling out its depth positions.  Over the summer Jim Rutherford made some shrewd moves that involved picking up Blake Comeau and Steve Downie but ended up trading away a possession wizard in Marcel Goc for a pugilist in Maxim Lapierre. The moves are confusing and don’t seem to be in line with his offseason analytic comments. Ryan Wilson from Hockey Buzz had a great article about this very topic a few days ago:

“The good news for Pittsburgh is that they have mostly all of the difficult parts already acquired. The easy part should be filling out the depth. And while they may not figure it out this year they still have the ability to quickly revamp things.

Crosby, Malkin, and Letang’s don’t grow on trees but Daniel Winnik’s do. Go find them and stop blaming the star players.”

The Penguins inability to pick up some solid depth pieces is a mystery that seems to plague many teams but could end up being a death sentence for a team with a generational player on it. The Metro division is stronger than ever and could result in a first round exit for an above average team. Sitting the Zach Sill’s of the world will make a difference come playoff time, now Pens fans better hope Rutherford figures that out sooner rather than later and fills the team out with the proper depth needed to let this team reach the next level.

About Sam Blazer

Sam is a self proclaimed chess prodigy. He once placed seventh in the state of Ohio in Chess when he was in kindergarten. He will rarely if ever mention though that only eight people were entered in this tournament. Contact him at sblaze17@gmail.com

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