The NHL draft is Friday and that means trade rumors and with Ryan Kesler moving to the Anaheim Ducks, names like Jason Spezza, Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Dion Phaneuf, Ryan Kesler, Brandon Sutter, Paul Martin, James Reimer and Vincent Lecavalier could be among some of the names traded by GMs as they try to snag picks or players and teams like the NY Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers could be dealing.
The Rangers and the Senators have the least amount of draft picks heading into the event and part of that was due to the Ryan Callahan trade for New York and now he has signed a deal with the Lightning. The Senators have Spezza and everyone expects them to trade him at some point. The Rangers could also be in the market after getting rid of Brad Richards and while they didn't want to do that, they did not have much of a choice in the matter.
The NHL salary cap is expected to rise up from $64.3 million to $69.6 million and that could lead teams to start making more moves. According to ESPN.com, the draft should have a number of trades and right now one has already gone down, as Ryan Kesler was traded to the Anaheim Ducks from the Vancouver Canucks. Kesler was the top trade candidate last season and he didn't move and now according to the report, he will go south to Cali and the Canucks get Nick Bonino, Luca Sbisa and a draft pick for the deal. Kesler is a very skilled player and he had a 40-goal season before and now he will be heading to Anaheim and that gives the Ducks another offensive threat to add to their dangerous main lines.
The Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup finals this year and while they lost, they felt it was worth dealing their picks for Martin St. Louis and now they are hoping they can keep up that success. The NHL put the team in a position where they had to get rid of Richards and now they reportedly could be interested in Thornton. The Rangers likely won't trade him, but Rick Nash has also come up in rumors after the way he has performance and while he hasn't been bad, he has not been the goal scoring leader that the Rangers envisioned when they signed him.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are looking for new deals and they could be asking for over $10 million each and that would be big for the Blackhawks to spend. The team needs to retool a bit after losing in the playoffs to the Kings and it could start after they get those deals done. Some other names that could move is Keith Yandle, Brandon Sutter, Patrik Berglund and Sam Gagner as well as goalies like Cam Ward and James Reimer. Trades went down at the past couple drafts, including Jordan Staal two years ago and Corey Schneider was also death last year and now that could play out again.