#parlortalk

The Carolina Hurricanes head into the 2020-21 season with a goaltending tandem of Petr Mrazek and James Reime...

Wayne Gretzky was the greatest NHL player of all-time but was involved in one of the most infamous and worst trades in NHL history. This trade sent shockwaves around the hockey world at the time because Gretzky was the best player in the league and was in his prime; nobody expects the best player in the league to get traded in his prime while his team was still winning Stanley Cups. The Gretzky trade had a huge impact on the two teams involved and on the league as well. Even after 30 years, the Wayne Gretzky trade is still remembered as one of the most infamous moments in NHL history.

The Vegas Golden Knights are in salary cap trouble, so they would definitely want to move at least one or two of their roster players. Two players have been coming up a lot recently on the rumor mill: Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Marchessault; both have great value as goal-scoring wingers and would fetch a good return. Instead of just being a salary cap dump for Vegas. Although Marchessault is easier to move because of his lower cap hit, he is also a part of their top line with Reilly Smith and William Karlsson. With that said, it would make the most sense to move Max Pacioretty because he has a 7 million annual cap hit, and he is also 3 years older than Marchessault. Finding a trade for Max Pacioretty might be tougher this offseason due to the salary cap not going up for the 2020-21 season; there are still some teams that need a veteran scorer like Max Pacioretty.

The Anaheim Ducks are a rebuilding team right now and unlikely to make the playoffs this season, so it would make sense for them to move some of their veteran players to get prospects and picks. The First player that should be moved is the Captain Ryan Getzlaf, who has one year left on his deal, however it will be tough to move him because he has a No-Movement Clause, which means he would have to approve the move to any team and he has an 8.25 million cap hit. Ryan Getzlaf’s production has dropped quite bit the past two seasons but that might be partially due to playing with a subpar supporting cast the past two seasons.

One of the most widely discussed topics in sports is who the Greatest Player of All time is and while it is mostly accepted that Wayne Gretzky is the greatest player of all time, there are still a legion of fans that believe that Gretzky’s stats were severely inflated due to the era he played in. For many old school fans, the greatest player of all time is Gordie Howe because he dominated the NHL for 26 seasons and the WHA for 6 seasons. Gordie Howe’s nickname is Mr. Hockey, which is already an indicator of how important he was to the sport of hockey. Gordie Howe was an All-Star 23 times and still holds the record for most games and seasons played.

After drafting Alexis Lafreniere, the Rangers now have too many talented young wingers on the team, so it would make sense for the Rangers to trade one of those young wingers like Kappo Kakko. The reason why it makes sense to move Kakko is because it will be tough for him to play in a top 6 role next season with how stacked they are on the wing, so they should use him as trade bait to acquire assets to fill needs at other positions. Also, the Rangers have other prospects in the system like Vitaly Kravtsov that can step in and replace him in the lineup.