NHL Trade Buzz: Panthers could look to add defenseman after Ekblad injury

Welcome to the NHL Trade Buzz. There are 14 days remaining until the 2021 NHL Trade Deadline (3 p.m. ET on April 12). Here's a look around the League at the latest deadline doings:

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Florida Panthers

Aaron Ekblad will be out 12 weeks following surgery Monday after the defenseman broke his left leg and
had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher
during the second period of a 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars on Sunday.
Replacing everything Ekblad does for the Panthers likely will be impossible before the 2021 NHL Trade Deadline considering he's their best defenseman, a huge part of the leadership group, their leader in ice time at 25:05 per game and their power-play quarterback.
The fact he's out the rest of the regular season and until deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (12 weeks is June 21; the regular season is scheduled to end May 11) likely puts added emphasis on the Panthers trading for a defenseman even though they are third in the Discover Central Division, 11 points ahead of the fourth-place Nashville Predators.
In the short term, the Panthers can recall defenseman Anton Stralman from the taxi squad. He's a right-hand shot like Ekblad and has scored nine points (three goals, six assists) in 29 games this season. Stralman cleared waivers and was assigned to the taxi squad Saturday.
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour, a pending unrestricted free agent after the season, is a right-hand shot who can play on the power play, though he hasn't done so on a regular basis since 2018-19 with the Anaheim Ducks.
Other right-shot options include David Savard of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Sami Vatanen of the New Jersey Devils. Each can become an unrestricted free agent after the season.
Tony DeAngelo
also is a right-shot defenseman and a power-play specialist. He has one more season left on his two-year, $9.6 million contract ($4.8 million average annual value). He's been on the New York Rangers' taxi squad but not with the team since Feb. 1 after he got into a physical altercation with goalie Alexandar Georgiev two days earlier.

San Jose Sharks

Patrick Marleau is open to the idea of being traded by the Sharks to a Stanley Cup contender before the deadline, the 41-year-old forward said Monday.
"Yeah, I think it's something you kind of have to consider," Marleau said. "Obviously if something comes up it's something we'll have to think about and see if it's the right situation."
He has scored six points (two goals, four assists) in 33 games.
Marleau was traded prior to the deadline last season, moving from San Jose to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a conditional third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft that could have become a second-round pick if the Penguins had won the Stanley Cup; Pittsburgh lost to the Montreal Canadiens in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
In his 23rd NHL season, Marleau never has won the Stanley Cup. The closest he's come was helping the Sharks reach the Final in 2016, where they lost to the Penguins in six games.

Nashville Predators

The Predators have won five games in a row to move into fourth place in the Central Division with 37 points in 36 games, including 13 regulation wins.
A team that two weeks ago was looking like an almost guaranteed seller before the trade deadline now has to think about potentially standing pat or buying, which means defenseman Mattias Ekholm, a popular name in the trade rumor mill, could be off the market.
Forwards Erik Haula and Mikael Granlund, who each can be an unrestricted free agent after the season, would be quality rental options for contending teams that need forward depth. However, it's possible the Predators could keep Haula and Granlund and treat them as their own rentals.
The Predators also should be getting defenseman Ryan Ellis (upper-body injury, out 15 games) and forward Matt Duchene (lower-body injury, out 13 games) back in the lineup either right before or shortly after the trade deadline.
Nashville's next five games all are against teams currently below them in the standings: two against the Dallas Stars, one against the Chicago Blackhawks and two against the Detroit Red Wings. The Predators have won six in a row and are a combined 10-4-0 against those teams, including 4-0-0 against the Blackhawks, who also have 37 points in 36 games.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets don't feel they need to add a defenseman before the trade deadline.
"It won't be any part of my day saying we'll wait for two weeks and see what happens because if we don't get a defenseman in here we can't win," Jets coach Paul Maurice said Monday. "We're winning hockey games now."
The Jets (21-12-2) are second in the Scotia North Division, two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs. They are 14th in the NHL in goals-against per game (2.77).
But the Jets are last in the NHL in goals from defensemen (six) and tied for 26th in points from defenseman (55). They get 17.6 percent of their points from defensemen, which is last in the NHL.
Josh Morrissey said players know there's outside talk about the Jets needing another defenseman, but it's not a conversation inside the dressing room.
"As a player, every year you come down the line closer to the deadline, there's speculation," he said. "Everyone hears about it. It's impossible not to. Especially we play in Canada. You hear about it on TV or in different ways. But I think what's key as a player is to try to block that out. It's out of your control. I think those things are often speculation based on people outside the organization. As a player, your job is to play the game and be ready."