Brace for absurdly long post!
There's a pretty broad consensus w/r/t a desire for this team to upgrade at #2C. But by and large the debate has been less about who to look at, and more of a generic "trade Wennberg" call. Trades tend to be more about what another team can offer and needs rather than what you hope to get for your guy (unless you're selling rentals at the deadline), so here I'm looking at each team for targets.
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Boston:
David Krejci is a risk, but a potentially interesting one with good short-term gain potential. He's 32 and signed for two years after this, so don't expect a long-term solution, but if Boston is still interested in moving him for younger assets, it's worthwhile. That last, however, is going to be the sticking point - the only reason he's potentially available is so they can save on cap hit. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what their needs are. Possibly worth inquiring after.
Buffalo:
Nothing doing here. They're not giving up Eichel or Mittlestat come hell or high water, and after those two comes players like Vladimir Sobotka. Nobody we could realistically get, in other words.
Detroit:
Athanasiou is off to a really good start, but whether or not he can do that as a C (he's been playing wing) is up for grabs... and Detroit is critically short on good young Cs (it's just him and Larkin, who won't be moved for blood or money), so they're not about to trade any in any case. Beyond that, the only candidate is Frans Nielsen, who's having a good year so far but is 34 and signed 'till he's 37, and had several awful years prior to now - not worth the risk.
Florida:
Let's get the obvious out of the way: Barkov Isn't Happening. Trocheck wouldn't be available with Wennberg as the centerpiece; we'd have to offer someone like Werenski, and it's an open question whether or not Florida would go for that (probably depends on how much confidence they have in Borgstrom). Plus, he's going to be out for a long while recovering from surgery from that broken foot. And they
really like him and the EXTREMELY team-friendly deal he's on. Maybe worth inquiring if we really are willing to move Werenski, but even then I suspect things would stall out.
Montreal:
Ottawa:
Matt Duchene is an obvious target, but here's the funny thing - he might not actually be available. He's apparently been making noises about wanting to stay in Ottawa and enjoying himself there. Granted, that may not ultimately be his call to make so long as the team is owned by Eugene Melnyk, but the point remains that he's no longer a guaranteed free agent. In any case, the cost for him is going to be high enough such that Wennberg would not be a centerpiece... and his age and UFA status are both such that I would be very reluctant to have Werenski as the centerpiece. And that's assuming that either of those guys actually meet Ottawa's needs at the moment (right now the only one I can concretely identify is "paying less salary" because Melnyk
).
Chris Tierney could also be an interesting target, altho there's complications. He's on a hot streak now, but there's no guarantee he actually represents an upgrade on Wennberg so we might prefer him as an addition rather than a replacement. And they
just traded for him (he was part of the EK return), so they might be reluctant to give him up. Still, he could make for a very nice addition if there's a practical way to make it happen.
Colin White might be worth bringing up, but I don't think it's realistic. He's young enough that they're going to see him as Future Core, and yet I don't think he's good enough to justify a swap of Young Core type players (read: Werenski or similar). Unless we get a
very nice add, I don't see how that's going to make the team better.
Tampa Bay:
This team doesn't seem to have any significant needs at the moment, which is going to make it awkward to make any trades with them. Which is too bad, because Tyler Johnson would make for an intriguing target otherwise. Sadly, they seem to be happy with playing him on the wing right now, and I doubt they'd go for a "winger for center-playing-as-winger" swap unless the winger was significantly better, and it would be detrimental to our team to do that.
Toronto:
Toronto might be willing to move Nylander, but I see a number of problems with that. One, that's a high-reach candidate; Wennberg will not get it done as a centerpiece. Two, they're more likely to do that in the offseason than during this season; they're trying to contend right now. Three, their primary need is a high-quality RHD - and Savard isn't high enough, and Jones... yeah, no. And all of this overlooks the fact that Nylander isn't proven as a C at the NHL level in any case. So despite his ostensible availability, he's actually not a very good target for us.
Kadri, by the way, is loved dearly by the Leafs and they won't consider trading him for the kind of value one would normally associate with a #2C. Again, Savard isn't enough.
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Carolina:
Carolina is
desperately low on scoring forwards of any kind, but centers in particular are a huge gaping wide hole in their lineup. If we had other needs worth patching we might get something from selling them Wennberg, but 1) that'd be a consideration for
after we secure a better #2C through other means, and 2) we don't presently need what they could offer (blueliners) anyways. (Altho, depending on what we might give up for that #2C, it might be worth looking into afterward...)
New Jersey:
New Jersey only has one center who's an upgrade on Wennberg, and suffice to say he is not available for anything we would reasonably consider offering.
New York Islanders:
The Islanders are critically understrength at center after the Tavares departure; the best we could hope for is if they think a "change of scenery" trade would pay off dividends for them. The only realistic candidate for that is Brock Nelson; Cizikas isn't an upgrade, and Barzal is completely out of the question. Nelson's had some reasonably productive years, but they've mostly been at the wing - and he's 27, so there's not much room for improvement available. We'd stand a very real risk of getting badly ripped off in a Wennberg swap. So I wouldn't wanna.
New York Rangers:
Kevin Hayes could be a nice target; he's a good #2-3C who consistently flirts with almost 50 points per season (and is so far on an even better pace). He's not known for faceoff ability, tho. What's awkward is his financial situation - he's a pending UFA, and his previous contract paid him $5,175,000/year, so keeping him is going to cost a pretty penny. The Rangers are rebuilding, and so they may be looking at a futures package. I'm not sure if Wennberg would be of interest to them; on the one hand, he might be useful as a placeholder; on the other hand, they just may not be interested in the guy. We'd almost certainly have to add on top of him, tho - I'd want to make the pick conditional on resigning somehow, but that's going to be a hard sell. Still, there's possibilities... assuming they're willing to talk to us at all given that whole in-division thing.
Zibadnejad is a pipe dream. He's their best C and on a very good contract. Expect ripoff overpayment to play. Namestnikov is not nearly as effective as a C, and has some effectiveness issues to begin with overall. And Strome is not an upgrade on Wennberg.
Philadelphia:
None of Giroux, Couturier, or Patrick are likely to be traded anytime soon. Giroux is on an insane point streak, Patrick is still young enough that he's in their far-future core plans, and Couturier's breakout season last year means that his contract is now one heck of a screaming deal. Their need is goaltending, but goaltending trades tend to be bizarre in their value, and Bob's UFA status isn't going to sell them on trading folks under control at good deals for good term.
Pittsburgh:
Well, we're not getting Crosby or Malkin.
Brassard's there, and he's not working out quite as planned with them, but they paid a lot for the guy and will want similar excess recompense back, so he's likely to end up costing more than he's worth. (And it's questionable whether or not he's an upgrade on Wennberg; he shoots more often, but otherwise they're similar players with similar production.)
Washington:
Kuznetsov and Backstrom are both well,
well out of reach; they're both above 1.2 points per game, and the Caps are a little busy trying to defend their title to willingly take a downgrade at C (the next guy available is Lars Eller, and, well, yeah). No hope here.
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Chicago:
Artem Anisimov might make an interesting "supplement" acquisition; my concern there is that he seems to have gotten a bit injury-prone in recent years. He wouldn't be an "upgrade" on Wennberg so much as a nice addition. I don't think any other centers in Chicago are worth discussing - Toews is out because contract and legend status there, DeBrincat is being hailed as their next savior and won't be moved, and nobody else is a helpful addition.
So what are their needs, other than futures and depth? Not sure. Artie might be available for just futures. Worth looking into. Again, tho, that's not a "trade Wennberg" scenario; it's more of a "improve center depth" approach.
Colorado:
This kind of depends on whether or not you believe in Alexander Kerfoot as an upgrade. I'm not so sure; he's almost as hesitant to shoot as Wennberg is, and he's smaller. He'd make a nice "supplement" acquisition (read: we don't trade them a center back), but Colorado's lack of center depth (and current competitiveness) suggest that they wouldn't have any interest in such a deal. There's nobody else who's a viable target (don't even
try asking about MacKinnon, it's absolutely not going to happen for anything we own).
Dallas:
There's nobody here that I think we can look at reasonably. Seguin's been recently extended and they're not really motivated to give him up. And behind Seguin there's basically nobody. (Spezza's done; he's 35 and his performance is vacillating unpredictably. Hanzal would be nice if he could stay healthy for longer than half a season. The rest are bottom-sixers or rookies.)
Minnesota:
Charlie Coyle has been brought up as a probable target. Personally, I don't think he solves the #2C problem any more than Jenner does - he'd be a nice acquisition otherwise, tho. Staal and Koviu would both be overage targets as they're both in their mid-30s, and both would be substantial performance upgrades, but only for the short-term. Personally, if I had to guess, I'd think that they want Koivu to retire in Minnesota.
What are Minnesota's needs? No clue. They might be going for a "shakeup" approach, because on paper they have a seemingly decent team. I'm just not sure.
Nashville:
They're kind of not on the market for anything from anyone right now. We'd have to "wow" them, and that's IMO a bad idea. The #2C situation isn't great, but it's not so overpoweringly horrible that we need to make a desperation overpay to get another team's attention.
St. Louis:
The Blues are having a rough time and is in the news about "maybe trading anyone". They've got two Cs who would be welcome here - Schenn and O'Reilly. Both are 27 years old, and both score
much more than Wennberg does; he would not be the centerpiece in such a deal. And there's a six-year age difference between them and Werenski, so balancing that out in a way that's fair to both teams would be problematic. They also have a need for goaltending, but Bob's UFA status and Korpi's lack of NHL starter experience are likely to scare them off; they've seen that movie before.
Winnipeg:
Bryan Little's really the only sane target that helps us now. His production has taken a dip recently, but it's still decent. They really like him up there, tho, and would probably be hesitant to give him up. And there's a
lot of term left on that deal; he's signed 'till he's 36, so this could turn sour on us pretty easily. But it's still a possibility.
Winnipeg doesn't have the center depth to give him away without getting a center back (recall how badly they wanted to keep Stastny), so we'd have to hope that they see more of a #2C in Wennberg than we do. This would be a tough sell. I suspect we'd get a lot of "the devil you know" type 'no' responses. Maybe worth looking into regardless, tho.
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Anaheim:
I think Anaheim is still attached to Getzlaf. Yes, he's getting older, but he's still producing just fine (unlike Perry). I don't think they trade him unless they get a significant haul back - at least, that'd be the case now. We could call back in two years and probably see a nicer situation, but that doesn't help us right now.
Behind him, they have Ryan Kesler, who's been a hopeless ****ing mess and I don't want him anywhere near my team. And then there's Adam Henrique, who I would very much like to have, but they
just extended him so I don't think a trade is in the cards.
So, I'm not seeing any feasible targets here.
Arizona:
The Galchenyuk At Center experiment ended in Arizona almost as quickly as it kept ending in Montreal, so I'm feeling justified in my cynicism w/r/t whether or not he can hack it there at the NHL level. They just traded for Schmaltz, so I don't see him moving.
Derek Stepan definitely has my interest, though. He's younger than one might think (28), he's having a rough year now but it's on a problematic team so a bounce-back seems likely, and he's good everywhere on the ice in all situations. They're using him as a general shelter-the-kids player, which is a useful thing to have, but maybe they might have some interest in Wennberg taking on a similar role. He's one of the more intriguing possible targets IMO. (His cap hit is a little high, tho.)
Calgary:
Calgary doesn't have any #2C level players outside of Backlund, and they love him to death and don't want to move him. They also don't have any old vet Cs that would be useful here. I'm frankly not seeing any viable targets. (Ryan and Jankowski would both merit consideration as supplemental adds, but frankly I don't think it's worth trying all that hard to pursue them. They just don't add enough IMO.)
Edmonton:
It
might be possible to get something out of Edmonton, but it's going to be extremely difficult and we run the risk of hurting the team more than we help it. Basically, they've got two primary needs, one of which we MIGHT be able to help with. Those are good RHDs (nope), and top-6 forwards (maybe!).
So what does that mean in this context? If we can put together a package of top-6 guys that entices, we might be able to pick up someone like RNH. But we'd have to send over legit quality guys. (I keep thinking Wennberg + Anderson, but I suspect they would want more or better.)
It'd be a risk. I'm not sure if it's worth it, and even if we come up with something
we can stomach, that's no guarantee of success. And bringing it up
now is not going to go over well because the Oilers are still on a hot streak under Hitch But this is another possible avenue that could get us a major upgrade if we're really fortunate.
Los Angeles:
He's not coming back.
Kopitar is a pipe dream due to his contract status. Vilardi is in their Future Core Plans; they won't give him up yet. So, really, there's nobody here. There might have been, but... let's face it. He never wanted to be here before; why would he come here now?
San Jose:
Let's get the simple stuff out of the way first - Couture and Hertl aren't happening. Those are the guys they're counting on once Thornton and Pavelski get too old to continue, so there's nothing doing there.
Thornton and Pavelski themselves, tho? I'm... honestly not sure. They're playing both guys as though they're still pushing for the Cup, so I suspect there's not going to be much receptiveness to a move that gets them Wennberg - even tho both are pending UFAs. Really, their primary need seems to be "a future after our 30+ players retire", so that suggests something might be possible... but if they're still seeing themselves as present Cup contenders, downgrading at C is not going to be an attractive notion.
So, frankly, IDKWTF. Maybe. Maybe not.
Vancouver:
Bo Horvat is one of the few players I'd willingly move Werenski for - and the way Petterson is playing, they might actually contemplate that. That'd be a real swing-for-the-fences move. Beyond that, I don't see much in the way of useful possibilities. They just don't have other centers of decent quality.
Vegas:
Stastny was signed there because of a lack of top center depth, and he's been injured all this time. I don't think there's any viable targets here.
