Mailbag: Teams that could sell big at Deadline; Devils goalie needs 

Here is the Jan. 17 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom, and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

In your opinion, which teams will trade off expiring-contract players and purge its roster the most at the trade deadline? -- @MrEd315

The Calgary Flames lead the list of teams that could potentially do this. Short of a massive turnaround in the next six weeks, the Flames should do this. Forward Elias Lindholm, and defensemen Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev are all pending unrestricted free agents. All three should be traded if Calgary doesn't play its way back into contention. The Flames need a reboot. As good as Lindholm, Hanifin and Tanev have been for them, the Flames haven't done much with them. If there was mutual interest, I think at least Lindholm and Hanifin would already have re-signed with Calgary. That they haven't is proof that a change is coming after the season, when they can hit the UFA market. The Flames have to get ahead of it and move Lindholm, Hanifin and Tanev before the March 8 NHL Trade Deadline. If there is enough interest in goalie Jacob Markstrom that possibility should be entertained as well, although that feels more like an offseason trade than an in-season trade. Markstrom has two years remaining on his contract with an average annual value of $6 million.

The Anaheim Ducks with forwards Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg, and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin as pending UFAs, are obvious sellers too. Silfverberg is expected to leave the NHL after this season to play at home in Sweden. There's no reason for the Ducks to keep him beyond the trade deadline. Henrique is an intriguing rental option for contending teams. He's versatile, can score, kill penalties, play on the power play and on a top-three line. He has value as a deadline rental acquisition. So should Lyubushkin for teams that need help on the back end; he won't fit well on a top pair, but Lyubushkin can slide into a second- or third-pair role nicely and there are a lot of teams that could use some assistance there.

Certainly, the San Jose Sharks will try to trade their pending UFAs in forwards Anthony Duclair, Mike Hoffman, Kevin Labanc and Alexander Barabanov. It'll be interesting to see if the Sharks also try to move goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who is 27 and a pending UFA. If they think he can be a part of their future it might be worth trying to re-sign him. Kahkonen knows he can be a No. 1 in San Jose. That's not a guarantee elsewhere. But Kahkonen also could be a good addition for a team that needs goaltending help down the stretch.

If I know the Devils need help in net and you know they need help in net, why wait to make the deal? They are giving away winnable games that will be key when the season comes to a close. -- @stevenwoj

Great question. They can't wait much longer. The Devils fast-tracked themselves into playoff contender status last season and they can't take a step backward this season because of goaltending. Their .882 save percentage is 31st in the NHL, ahead of only the Ottawa Senators (.880). Considering they're allowing an average 29.5 shots per game, that's a stunningly poor save percentage. Without question the Devils have to be better in front of their goalies, particularly Vitek Vanecek. They give up far too many high-danger scoring chances, but they're in the negative in saves above expected, which speaks more to a goaltending issue.

But why wait? It takes two teams to make a deal and teams typically won't line up to help another team attempt to solve its goaltending problems unless it's worth it. The market hasn't heated up yet either. There are no sure things that will be available on the trade market too. All the goalies who are or could become available come with question marks, including Jake Allen (Montreal Canadiens), Markstrom (Flames), John Gibson (Anaheim Ducks), Kahkonen (Sharks) and Elvis Merzlikins (Columbus Blue Jackets). The good news is all except Kahkonen are signed beyond this season.

The one to watch right now is Merzlikins. Speaking of …

Where does Elvis Merzlikins end up? And how soon? -- @theJPW

As mentioned in the answer above, Merzlikins is the goalie to watch on the trade market because he has gone public with his trade request. The fact that he did should, in theory, hurt the Blue Jackets' leverage in trade talks about the goalie. But in a way, Columbus hurt its own leverage with the goalie in trade talks when it benched him in late December. That was the signal to the rest of the NHL that there was trouble between Merzlikins and the Blue Jackets. Merzlikins confirmed it by saying Monday that he has requested a trade.

What Columbus has to do now is figure out how many teams are interested in Merzlikins and what is their level of interest. That process has to play out internally for the Blue Jackets because the only way for them to regain some leverage that they lost in trade talks is to play one team against another. For example, if the Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and, say, Edmonton Oilers are all interested, the Blue Jackets might be able to pry a better return than they would if only the Devils were interested.

Ideally, a trade happens soon, maybe before or during the 2024 NHL All-Star break (Feb. 1-3). The Blue Jackets should want the issue resolved so they can move on and, assuming the teams they're talking to are in the playoff picture, getting Merzlikins in as soon as possible is important. He's not a sure thing. He's a super confident player with a huge personality, but Merzlikins hasn't backed it up. He had a 4.23 goals-against average and .876 save percentage in 30 games last season and is at 3.22 and .906 in 24 games this season. He has a lot to prove, which is another reason why I don't think teams are going to be coming to the Blue Jackets with fully loaded trade packages. They're going to try to use the leverage the Blue Jackets lost to get Merzlikins for a bargain package. If Columbus thinks it can get more, it'll wait longer, hope Merzlikins plays and plays well, entice more suitors, and trade him when his value is higher.

The Predators have talked about the future a lot. Right now, they're the top wild card. What do you think Barry Trotz looks at near the deadline since they have draft capital? -- @punmasterrifkin

Scoring, including a defenseman who might be able to bring some offense because, frankly, the only one who does for them now is Roman Josi.

The Predators didn't sign Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist in July to be sellers in March. They have draft capital with nine picks in the first four rounds of the 2024 NHL Draft, cap space, an elite goalie (Juuse Saros) and two star players in Josi and Filip Forsberg who bought in long term to bring the Stanley Cup to Nashville. If they look at the rental market, Henrique, Lindholm and Canadiens forward Sean Monahan all make sense up front, and Hanifin could be a huge get for them on the back end. But the Predators don't have to limit themselves to the rental market with the draft capital and cap space they have. They should be exploring all opportunities. For example, if the Ducks are at all thinking about moving forward Trevor Zegras, the Predators better be in on that. (Anaheim shouldn't do that, by the way). If the Ottawa Senators are making defenseman Jakob Chychrun available or the Minnesota Wild do the same with Jonas Brodin, Nashville should be in on them.

Should the NHL follow rugby and during a coach's challenge allow us to hear the refs and command center going through the call and see their views in real time? -- @NeufeldBlake

I didn't know this was done in any sport. It would be awesome, but I don't think the NHL should do this or needs to do this. For entertainment purposes it would be great. From a fan viewing perspective what's not to love. It adds a layer of entertainment value. But it puts the officials and the people working in the Situation Room, who are not the entertainers, not who people are paying to watch, on the spot and under even more scrutiny than they are already under. They should be allowed to go through the review process being worried about something they may say that could get taken the wrong way or put out of context. We see a lot of the views that they see already in real time. I feel the television broadcasts and the broadcasters do a good job of breaking down the video reviews as they are happening in real time. I would love to hear the conversation between the person in the Situation Room and the official, but it's not necessary to the outcome of the review and to the entertainment of the game.