It's definitely the right move to build around Hughes/Petey/Demko IMO, 3 very good young players. Hard to see them trading Hoglander or Podz either - not that either are untouchable, but they're quality young players - part of the future unless it's a really good deal.
You have to imagine the price for Boeser, Horvat or Miller would be very high. All very good players who are effectively signed beyond this year - Horvat and Miller under contract next year (then UFAs), Boeser an RFA this offseason, but obviously still under their control.
IMO Garland and Pearson would be the most likely quick deals - both solid players with positive trade value, but not key pieces for a rebuild. Much more affordable for other teams than Boeser/Horvat/Miller - you can make a small win-now deal for Garland or Pearson, that's an easy win for both teams, but trading stars is always a bigger, more complex deal, and all of Boeser/Horvat/Miller are star-ish level players. My bet is that if the Nucks make any notable deals before the trade deadline (i.e. not "X for a 4th" type deals), it'll be Garland or Pearson going out (or both).
I'd say the entire defence outside of Hughes has either minimal or negative value. OEL and Myers both have very significantly negative value - neither are very good, and both are on bad contracts. The Nucks would have to pay a fair bit to dump either - especially OEL, who is on one of the worse albatross contracts in the league. Doesn't make much sense to pay to dump OEL/Myers unless they're contending, which they aren't. Then Hamonic and Schenn have about neutral value - low end dmen, but on better deals. If the Nucks trade any dmen, it's because they're making room for better dmen that they hopefully acquire - nobody is giving up anything of note for any Nucks dman but Hughes, who is rightfully off the table.
