In the Eastern Conference, with just eight points separating 14th place and a playoff spot, there really only appears to be one team that is committed to being a seller, and that’s the New York Rangers.

Ryley Delaney wrote about them earlier this week in their ‘Meet The Sellers’ piece, and with Panarin out of the picture, it’s slim pickings when it comes to quality trade pieces on their roster.

In the Western Conference, there are a few more teams that appear to be locks to be sellers. The Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, and St. Louis Blues are in that group, with the Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks likely going to join in on the selling activities at some point.

Outside of that, there are a bunch of teams that are in awkward spots but aren’t necessarily going to be forced to sell.

That will result in prices likely being much higher than they have been in the past and that’s saying something considering that we haven’t really seen a true buyers market in the NHL in quite some time.

If you’re someone who wants Oilers GM Stan Bowman to be uber aggressive at this year’s deadline, then be prepared for him to potentially have to pay some high prices.

Take a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs for example.

They have a premium rental in Bobby McMann, who they will be somewhat forced to move before March 6th if they have no plans of resigning him but outside of him, there is no one that they’re necessarily going to be forced to move.

There has been some chatter over the last week that the Oilers could be interested in Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

I had a chance to chat with David Pagnotta from The Fourth Period earlier this week and here’s what he had to say:

“Two guys that, based on what the Oilers are out there looking for, I would imagine that they would have interest in are Nic Roy and Oliver Ekman-Larson.”

Adding another veteran defenseman has been something that Pagnotta has been hinting at for a while now and Ekman-Larson would make some sense.

He can play both sides of the ice, he has playoff experience, he comes in at a very reasonable $3.5m cap hit, and with two more years left on his contract, the Oilers would get him for multiple years.

Now all of those same reasons are exactly why Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving isn’t just going to give him away.

“The Leafs aren’t trading him for Mangiapane and a pick,” added Pagnotta. “You’re probably looking at an Issac Howard in a deal to get OEL out of Toronto. If it gets to that point, it’s going to be a larger deal”.

A lot of you might shake your head at the idea of moving on from someone like Howard at this year’s trade deadline, but if Bowman is going to take a big swing, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of options at his disposal.

They already moved on from a second-round pick in the Tristan Jarry trade and a third-round pick in the deal to acquire Spencer Stastney from the Nashville Predators.

The cupboards are pretty bare and if you’re calling a team and asking about a quality player with term, they’re going to expect a few premium assets in return. If you also want them to take back a bad contract like Mangiapane or retain salary on a player, then the cost is only going to go up.

With very few teams selling, there are not very many premium players on the market.

That means the cost for rental players, like McMann, are going to be much higher than they have been in the past and for teams who have players with term on their contracts, whether that’s Ekman-Larson in Toronto or a player like Ryan O’Reilly in Nashville, they can hold firm on their high asking prices simply because they can afford to wait until the summer to move on from those players.

It’s not a great season to be a GM that’s looking to make a big splash, which is why I think this deadline might be a little quieter for the Oilers than the ones in years past.

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