NHL Trade Buzz: O'Reilly hopes Blues keep team intact at Deadline

Welcome to the NHL Trade Buzz. There are 12 days remaining until the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. ET,, and the buzz is picking up. Center Ryan O'Reilly hopes the surging St. Louis Blues don't make big changes. Los Angeles Kings forward Carl Hagelin knows he could be traded for the second time this season. Will Olli Maatta's injury push the Pittsburgh Penguins into the market for another defenseman? Are the Florida Panthers really considering moving forward Jonathan Huberdeau?
Here's a look around the League at the latest deadline doings:

St. Louis Blues

A seven-game winning streak and building confidence have center Ryan O'Reilly hoping the Blues don't mess with their chemistry before the trade deadline.
"I don't expect really anything big to happen here, and that's good," O'Reilly told NHL.com correspondent Louie Korac on Wednesday. "I think we have the group that can get it done."
The Blues (28-22-5) have reason to feel good about themselves. They were 15-22-4 and in last place in the Western Conference with 34 points on Jan. 1 but have gone 13-4-1 since then. The hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West with 61 points, two behind the Dallas Stars for third in the Central Division.
"It was a tough start to the season, but we hung on and we stayed in the fight," O'Reilly said. "But we're not done. There's still plenty to fight for."
Before the surge up the standings, it appeared the Blues would be sellers at the deadline, with forward Patrick Maroon and defensemen Jay Bouwmeester, Carl Gunnarsson and Chris Butler candidates to be moved for draft picks or prospects; each can become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Now Armstrong has to decide whether to keep those players to see how far this run will take them.
Giving up prospects or draft picks to add a rental player to supplement their scoring or their power play, which is 6-for-46 (13 percent), 28th in the NHL, since Jan. 1, might not make sense at this point, but that could change if the Blues keep winning.
O'Reilly, who leads St. Louis with 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists) in 55 games, said he wouldn't be against the Blues adding before the deadline but knows that might be difficult with the NHL salary cap.
"That's the thing," he said. "You never know, but [being in in position to add is] the better side to be on, for sure."
St. Louis begins a three-game road trip against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-MW, NHL.TV).

Los Angeles Kings

Carl Hagelin knows his time with Los Angeles might be running out, but the 30-year-old forward is trying to block that out while awaiting whatever comes next. The Kings (23-28-5) remain eight points behind the Minnesota Wild in the race for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and likely will be sellers before the deadline.
That would mean Hagelin, who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, might be on the move again after being traded to the Kings by the Pittsburgh Penguins for forward Tanner Pearson on Nov. 14.
"Everyone understands the situation we're in," Hagelin said Monday. "You just keep playing hockey. You never know what's going to happen. That's out of my jurisdiction right now."
The Kings already have traded away two players in the past two weeks. First,
they shipped defenseman
Jake Muzzin to the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Carl Grundstrom, the rights to defenseman Sean Durzi and a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on Jan. 28.
Then,
they dealt center
Nate Thompson and a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft to the Montreal Canadiens for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft on Monday.
Hagelin, who won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017, would be a valuable addition for a contender seeking speed and a strong penalty killer. He has 230 points (90 goals, 140 assists) in 523 NHL games with the Kings, Penguins, Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers.
"That's nothing I think about right now, but the media keeps talking about it," Hagelin said. "You always know it could happen, but right now I'm focused on everything that's going on here."
Hagelin missed 20 games with a knee injury from Nov. 25-Jan. 3 but is healthy now and starting to feel comfortable with the Kings, playing on a line with Adrian Kempe and Ilya Kovalchuk. He has five points (one goal, four assists) in 19 games since the trade.
The Kings return from a six-game road trip (3-2-1) to play the Vancouver Canucks at Staples Center on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, SNP, NHL.TV).
"I'm starting to get familiar with this team right now and my line is going pretty well," Hagelin said. "The team is playing way better. Even the games we've lost now, we've been in and had a good chance of winning. So it's a better feeling."

Pittsburgh Penguins

The return of defenseman Justin Schultz is imminent, but he won't be in the lineup when the Penguins host the Edmonton Oilers at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS).
Schultz's return will be welcomed after the Penguins learned Tuesday that defenseman Olli Maatta will be sidelined indefinitely with an upper-body injury he sustained against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
Schultz (fractured left leg), who hasn't played since Oct. 13, was expected to be paired with Maatta when he came back but will have to find another partner until Maatta is healthy. The Penguins thought Schultz's return would give them a surplus of defensemen, which contributed to their decision to trade Jamie Oleksiak to the Dallas Stars for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on Jan. 28.
With some uncertainty surrounding the length of Maatta's absence, it's possible the Penguins might look to add a depth defenseman to help for the stretch run.
Pittsburgh (29-20-7) holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 65 points, but is one point ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes (29-22-6) and two in front of the Buffalo Sabres (28-21-7).
Maatta, 24, has been a key contributor for the Penguins this season. He's fourth among Pittsburgh's defensemen in averaging 18:32 of ice time and has 13 points (one goal, 12 assists) in 55 games. His experience as a two-time Stanley Cup winner will be difficult to replace.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is taking phone calls from teams interested in forward Artemi Panarin and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, but he hasn't decided yet whether he'll trade either before the deadline.
In an extensive
Q&A with NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Costonika
on Wednesday, Kekalainen said he has a simple approach with opposing GMs in any trade discussions.
"Make an offer if you're interested," Kekalainen said.
Bobrovsky, a two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender, and Artemi Panarin, Columbus' leading scorer with 64 points (22 goals, 42 assists), can become unrestricted free agents July 1. With neither player interested at this time in negotiating an extension and the trade deadline approaching, Kekalainen knows he'll have to make up his mind soon about whether to keep them in hope of making a long run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Kekalainen said that choice will be based more on what other teams are offering than the standings. Columbus (32-20-3) is third in the Metropolitan Division with 67 points, two behind the second-place Washington Capitals and five behind the first-place New York Islanders, who come to Nationwide Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, MSG+, NHL.TV). However, the Blue Jackets are also just two points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who hold the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference, and three ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, the non-playoff team in the East with the best record.
"We believe in our team," Kekalainen said. "That's why we'd like to make our team stronger now, too, to compete in the springtime. But we also have to keep the future in mind because we have a lot of young players that are only going to keep getting better. We have some players that are coming next year that we think can have a good chance of making the team and making our team stronger in the near future."
Forward Cam Atkinson said he's confident the Blue Jackets will be able to contend for the Stanley Cup this season no matter where Panarin and goalie Bobrovsky are playing after the deadline.
Atkinson told Cotsonika
that he has faith Kekalainen will do what's best.
"Whatever happens, happens," Atkinson said. "I don't make those decisions. They're above my pay grade. But we have the group of guys in here to make a run, and Jarmo's always been good where, if he does trade star players or what, he always gets some pretty good players in return."
A lot will be determined in the Blue Jackets' final 27 regular-season games.
"I think we're so close," Atkinson said. "We have all the right pieces, a young team still obviously learning and maturing."

Florida Panthers

A 3-0 loss to the Dallas Stars
on Tuesday left the Panthers at 0-2-0 during a seven-game homestand they viewed as pivotal to their hopes of climbing back into the Eastern Conference race. Florida (23-24-8) had made a mini surge by going 6-2-0 in their eight games before the homestand, but trails Pittsburgh by 11 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 27 games remaining, increasing the chances it will be a seller before the deadline.
Speculation continues to swirl about the Panthers' interest in forward Artemi Panarin and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky should the Columbus Blue Jackets decide to trade either or both rather than risk losing them as unrestricted free agents July 1. And the Panthers would likely be among the most interested if Panarin and Bobrovsky reach the UFA market.
TSN added Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau to its
"Trade Bait Board"
on Monday with the theory he could be part of a package to acquire Panarin and Bobrovsky from the Blue Jackets.
In an interview with The Athletic on Tuesday
, Huberdeau dismissed the talk as a rumor.
"We don't know if it's true," said Huberdeau, who has 52 points (13 goals, 39 assists) in 55 games this season. "I'm just going to play here for now. We're trying to make a push for the playoffs and I am going to do everything I can. We'll see what happens. You can't do anything about it, just play hockey. Just play the game."
With Huberdeau, 25, under contract for four more seasons, he appears to be part of the Panthers' long-term core, but they have six potential unrestricted free agents who could be dealt for future assets before the deadline: forwards Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan, Jamie McGinn, Troy Brouwer and Micheal Haley and defenseman
Bogdan Kiselevich
.
Brassard and Sheahan were acquired from the Penguins in a trade for forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann on Feb. 1. Florida also acquired Pittsburgh's second- and fourth-round picks in the 2019 NHL Draft, and a fourth-round pick in 2019 previously acquired from the Minnesota Wild in the deal.
On the day of the trade, general manager Dale Tallon said, performance will dictate whether Brassard and Sheahan stay in Florida or are moved again before the deadline.
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