NHL Notebook: Mitch Marner, Linus Ullmark atop Daily Faceoff trade targets list
1 month ago
With just four teams left in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, today’s NHL Notebook will focus on some off-season news!
Daily Faceoff released their top trade targets when the off-season begins. Moreover, Utah’s hockey team could have a name in the near future, Steven Stamkos is a pending free agent, and the Carolina Hurricanes have re-signed a prospect.
Daily Faceoff’s top 20 trade targets
It’s shaping up to be an eventful summer, as a few superstars could be moved as teams look to shake up their roster. Edmonton Oilers defencemen Darnell Nurse landed on this list, ranked #19, but Zach Laing covered this already.
Mitch Marner
One team in need of a change during their window of contention is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Since the 2017 postseason, seven of their 10 playoff rounds have seen them lose Game 7 (or the Game 7 equivalent during the 2020 postseason) of the first round. They broke the first-round curse in 2023 by defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning, but once again lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the first round in 2024.
Something has to give, hence why Mitch Marner ranks as Daily Faceoff’s top trade target. There’s no disputing that he gets it done in the regular season. He scored 26 goals and points in 69 games this season and had 30 goals and 99 points the season prior. However, he had a goal and three assists in Toronto’s first-round exit and has 11 playoff goals and 50 playoff points in 57 games.
Marner has just one season left on his contract, making an annual average salary of $10.903 million with a no-move clause.
Linus Ullmark
A player who the Oilers could be interested in is Linus Ullmark. The 30-year-old netminder ranks second on Daily Faceoff’s list and had a .915 save percentage and a 2.55 goals-against average in 40 games this season. Despite winning the Vezina Trophy in 2022-23 with a .938 save percentage and a 1.89 goals-against average, Ullmark split the net with Jeremy Swayman.
The Boston Bruins have two Vezina-calibre netminders, but their centre depth is weak. Moving Ullmark could help them replenish it, and Ullmark makes $5 million a season until the end of next season with a modified no-trade clause.
Jakob Chychrun
Jakob Chychrun is the top defenceman available, scoring 14 goals and 41 points in 82 games with the Ottawa Senators in 2023-24. However, Ottawa has a ton of left-shot defencemen, including Erik Brännström, Jake Sanderson, and Thomas Chabot. Moving a player where they have a ton of depth could help them fill a position of need, such as the right side of their defence.
Chychrun has a season left on his contract with an annual average of $4.6 million. He has a 10-team no-trade list.
Martin Nečas
Carolina Hurricanes right winger Martin Nečas ranked fourth on the list. He scored 24 goals and 53 points in 77 games this season. According to Daily Faceoff, he wants opportunities but likely won’t get it in Carolina, thus, a trade could be made.
Nečas is a pending restricted free agent whose qualifying offer will cost $3.5 million. Could he get an offer sheet? Will the Hurricanes try to re-sign him? Will he be traded? This will be a fun one to monitor.
Nikolaj Ehlers
The last player we’ll look at is Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who scored 25 goals and 61 points in 82 games this season, helping the Jets finish second in a tough Central Division. The 28-year-old is a career-Jet, but that may change as the team could look to shake up their roster.
Ehlers isn’t on a long-term deal, unlike the rest of their core, as his contract ends at the end of the 2024-25 season. He has a cap hit of $6 million, and has a 10-team no-trade list.
Utah has two top names
Moving on to some news about the soon-to-be Utah hockey team, the team’s owner, Ryan Smith, said on the Pat McAfee Show that both the Utah Mammoth and the Utah Yeti are considered “early favourites.”
Those are just two of 20 available names for fans to vote for. The full list can be found below.
Utah Blast
Utah Powder
Utah Mammoth
Utah Mountaineers
Utah Black Diamonds
Utah Swarm
Utah Yeti
Utah Caribou
Utah Frost
Utah Venom
Utah Squall
Utah Outlaws
Utah Hive
Utah Freeze
Utah Fury
Utah HC
Utah Glaciers
Utah Canyons
Utah Blizzard
Utah Ice
Personally, I like the Utah HC, but that could just be the soccer fan in me. Every team in the big four North American sport leagues have a nickname, so the uniqueness of “Utah Hockey Club” is cool to me.
If I had to pick a nickname, Utah Outlaws would be my pick.
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What’s in Steven Stamkos’ future
At one point in his career, Steven Stamkos stood toe-to-toe with Alex Ovechkin as one of the most prolific goal-scorers in the league. Through his first five and a bit seasons, Stamkos compiled 222 goals in 390 games including the first 60-goal season in 2011-12, the first time that had been done since Ovechkin scored 65 in 2007-08.
That was until a brutal leg injury during the 2013-14 season against the Boston Bruins. At this point in the season, Stamkos had 14 goals and 23 points in 17 games, but missed nearly four months. Since then, he’s been incredibly unlucky with injuries but has managed to score 322 goals and 711 points in 672 games.
Stamkos, when healthy, is good for around 35 goals, scoring 40+ goals twice in the past two seasons. While he’s getting up there in age, the pending unrestricted free agent is going to get a pretty penny for a prolific goal scorer.
During the latest Daily Faceoff LIVE on Wednesday, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk sat down to discuss what’s next for Stamkos.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Last week, the Lightning went out and re-acquired Ryan McDonagh from the Nashville Predators. Now the Bolts have $5 million in cap space, they have to re-sign Steven Stamkos. What’s the plan?Frank Seravalli: Well you can always find a way to create more, you can make some other type of transaction. I really have a hard time envisioning Stamkos not playing for the Lightning moving forward. Another 40-goal season, a guy that doesn’t feel like age is catching up to him, and it’s not like he is 37 and we are having this debate, he is just 33. He will take a pay cut, but the question is how much?I think the McDonagh re-acquisition is a really interesting spot, in some ways, it’s an admission that they got it wrong in the first place moving on from him. I thought at the time they got it right moving on from him, he was a guy who was showing signs of slowing down, they had to make a difficult decision with their cap and at $6.75 million, this was a guy that kind of made sense, they won Stanley Cups and he goes off to Nashville. He ends up being unhappy, he tells the Preds, “I want to be moved.”Now you bring him back at the same price cap-wise, and the Preds got more for him to use him for a year than what they gave up on him for. A smart piece of business by the Predators but now what do the Lightning do? My guess is Stamkos’s contract will be somewhere in the $6 to $7 million range and then they have a couple of things to play with this summer whether it’s Tanner Jeannot or one of these other guys in their lineup that they will have to say goodbye to.
Carolina Hurricanes re-sign Ryan Suzuki
Carolina Hurricanes right winger Martin Nečas could move on, but the team has re-signed prospect Ryan Suzuki to a one-year extension.
Selected with the 29th overall pick in the 2019 draft, the left-shot centre from London, Ontario, has yet to make his National Hockey League debut. Last season with the Springfield Thunderbirds in the American Hockey League, he scored 14 goals and 30 points, with the goal total surpassing his career-best 13 he had the previous season.
At the NHL level, he’ll have a cap hit of $775,000, while his AHL cap hit will be $70,000. He is guaranteed to make $90,000.
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