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Buying or Selling the Latest NHL Trade and Free-Agency Rumors | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

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Buying or Selling the Latest NHL Trade and Free-Agency Rumors

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    Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images

    We’re down to the final hours.

    The start of the NHL’s 2022-23 schedule is just two days away, and the league’s 32 teams are making roster tweaks to ensure the best seasons possible.

    Among agenda items are fielding late-stage trade offers and eyeing contracts that’ll ensure the best mix for the short and long term.

    And given that potential for personnel volatility, it’s a guarantee that rumors will fly.

    The B/R hockey team stepped in to weed things out and determine which items are worthy of “Buy” labels and which others should best have “Sell” attached.

    Scroll through to see what we came up with, and drop us a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

Puljujarvi on His Way out of Edmonton

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    Derek Leung/Getty Images

    The Jesse Puljujarvi clock is ticking. Loudly.

    Edmonton drafted the 6’4″, 201-pounder fourth overall in 2016 and certainly hoped the Finnish winger would approach the level of performance since put up by No. 1 overall pick Auston Matthews, or even Patrik Laine and Pierre-Luc Dubois at Nos. 2 and 3.

    But to say it hasn’t worked out that way would be, well…accurate.

    He scored just 17 goals through 139 games in his first three seasons, spent the 2019-20 campaign overseas while pondering his future and has since returned to produce 61 points in 120 games across two more seasons.

    The “Bison King” is popular with fans and new-age underlying stat gurus but has been rumored as trade bait for what seems like forever these days. And the volume has only increased with the training camp buzz surrounding 2020 draft pick Dylan Holloway, who scored three goals while getting top-six time alongside Leon Draisaitl on Monday night.

    Add to it that Puljujarvi carries a $3 million cap hit for the cash-strapped Oilers for 2022-23, while Holloway is signed to an entry-level deal that’ll pay $925,000 for two more years.

    The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman wrote that “Holloway’s emergence will almost certainly spell the end of Jesse Puljujarvi’s time with the club, whether that’s next week or next year.”

    He’s not wrong.

    Verdict: Buy

Sabres Making a Play for Robertson

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    Ben Green/NHLI via Getty Images

    One year and one round after Puljujarvi came Jason Robertson.

    The Dallas Stars plucked the native Californian with the 39th overall pick in 2017 and were almost instantly rewarded with a productive NHLer, to the tune of 45 points in 51 games in his rookie 2020-21 season and a 41-goal, 79-point run across 74 games in 2021-22.

    He was a Calder Trophy finalist in the initial season and earned MVP votes for the follow-up, fully maximizing the value of a combined $3.2 million cap hit since signing in 2018.

    Of course, the hot start comes with a far more substantial price tag for a restricted free agent, meaning Robertson’s in the market for a deal that could cost $7 million annually over three or four seasons, according to Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas Morning News.

    The Stars have $7.8 million in cap space with 20 players signed for 2022-23 and are looking at nine more possible free agents heading into next season, leaving them with painful cost-cutting choices to make sure all the books stay balanced. It also leaves open the possibility of an offer sheet, which Dallas would have to match in order to keep Robertson in town.

    Ex-NHLers Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet suggested on their podcast that the Buffalo Sabres have kicked the tires on a trade, and an offer sheet is feasible given the team’s extensive cap room and roster full of young talent with which a 23-year-old star would blend nicely.

    But while he’d make Buffalo an instant playoff contender in the East, it’d be nearly impossible for general manager Jim Nill to show his face in Texas if No. 21 gets away.

    Verdict: Sell

Columbus All-In on Chychrun

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    Jakob Chychrun is a hockey writer’s best friend.

    The No. 16 overall pick in the 2016 draft has not only been a productive NHL player since his full-time arrival later that year, but his status as a standout defender on a struggling team has made him a staple of trade-deadline and other deal-oriented pieces for nearly as long.

    The speculation picked up steam throughout last season and the 6’2″, 220-pound Florida native didn’t hurt the rumor market late last month when he went public with an admission that he’d requested to be moved to a team with championship-contending street cred.

    His Arizona Coyotes, by the way, finished 31st in a 32-team league last season.

    So the idea that he’ll ultimately be moved is an easy buy.

    But the idea that it’ll be the Columbus Blue Jackets that ultimately land him is a bit more difficult to wrap a mind around.

    GM Jarmo Kekalainen did make headlines when he reeled in Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau as the summer’s highest-profile free agent, and it does stand to reason that the team will tick upward from the 21st overall position it owned in 2021-22.

    And when TSN insider Darren Dreger listed the Blue Jackets among the suitors for Chychrun, it no doubt stirred the passions of the organization’s rabid 1st Ohio Battery fan base.

    Problem is, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline had already suggested that Columbus made an inquiry about Chychrun before the 2022 draft and that the player himself had rejected the proposition of a move.

    Gaudreau’s a nice addition for sure, but unless Chychrun has completely changed course on wanting a chance to win a Stanley Cup, the two won’t be teammates any time soon.

    Verdict: Sell

Pittsburgh Shopping a Defenseman

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    It’s not the worst problem a GM can have: too many NHL-quality defensemen.

    So with the Pittsburgh Penguins approaching the regular season with as many as nine men capable of logging respectable ice time on the blue line, something will give.

    The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli suggested that 2017 first-rounder Pierre-Olivier Joseph will be that something, reporting that Ron Hextall has been making the telephone rounds to let the league’s other 31 teams know the 6’2″, 185-pounder is available by trade.

    Joseph was made the 23rd overall pick that year by the Arizona Coyotes and has struggled to make an impact at the NHL level, appearing in 16 games for the Penguins during 2020-21 and averaging 20-plus shifts while producing five points and drawing six penalty minutes.

    He drew in only four times in 2021-22 and didn’t reach the scoresheet, and he’s had limited opportunities in training camp as coach Mike Sullivan has opted to use Ty Smith and Jan Rutta as his third blue-line pairing during recent preseason games.

    A deal could net Hextall and the team a low-level asset in return, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone surrendering anything beyond a favor once they realize Pittsburgh has no plans for Joseph, and any patient suitor could simply wait for him to be waived.

    Verdict: Buy (but it won’t work)

Pastrnak Going Long with the Bruins

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    Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

    It all depends on who you listen to.

    TSN’s Darren Dreger will use phrases like “it’s a process” and insist all is well as the Bruins progress toward a long-term contract with prolific winger David Pastrnak.

    Makes perfect sense.

    The now-26-year-old Czech has been a point-per-game player for four seasons, scoring 146 goals and producing 301 points across 256 games in that stretch, and, as he enters the final year of a six-year, $40 million deal, it’s a no-brainer for Sweeney to get it done.

    But the season is rapidly approaching, the Bruins will play their first game on October 12, and the perfunctory distraction-avoiding commitment ceremony has yet to take place.

    So then you start listening to others.

    The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa cited a source close to Pastrnak in June who insisted there was “no chance” the player would sign a long-term deal with Boston as long as Don Sweeney is general manager.

    As for the team’s long-term fortunes, they’re a bit murky, too.

    The Bruins have nine forwards aged 30 or older heading into 2022-23 and they’re coming off a 10th overall finish last season that ended in a first-round playoff elimination by the Carolina Hurricanes and extended a title-less drought to 11 seasons.

    They have eight others scheduled to be unrestricted free agents by the start of next season, too, including captain Patrice Bergeron.

    That exodus will drive Pastrnak away…perhaps to (you heard it here first) Madison Square Garden.

    Verdict: Sell





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