NHL Trade Board: Will Leafs’ new regime sell Matthews on staying in Toronto?
We’ve reached a no man’s land of the NHL calendar in which half a dozen teams are still competing hard for the Stanley Cup, while the rest have already shifted to offseason mode. That means the hard discussions are well under way on their players’ futures, and the early foundations of June trades are being laid.
Which names should we monitor closely in the weeks leading up to the NHL Draft? Welcome to the first Daily Faceoff Trade Board for the 2026 offseason. It features a mix of Trade Deadline holdovers who could still be in play, larger stars facing or forcing big decisions about their futures and new names that have emerged in the rumor mill since the March 6 Trade Deadline.
I’ve compiled names for this board via committee approach across The Nation Network, consisting of:
(a) Intel provided from the various insiders appearing across our shows and/or publishing content for us, from the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta to DFO’s own Anthony Di Marco and more;
(b) My own information;
(c) Absorbing the external reporting and trade chatter already out there as public knowledge;
(d) Hypothesizing a handful of names not yet publicly on the block;
(e) Contract information courtesy of our friends at PuckPedia.
TIER 1: Obvious trade candidates
Mason McTavish, C, Anaheim Ducks
Age: 23
Cap hit: $7,000,000 through 2030-31
Year 1 of his seven-year contract…healthy scratched for more games than not this postseason. If there was a tier above 1, I’d place McTavish there. The negotiations leading up to his extension last September were rocky to begin with, and now the Ducks have mothballed a $7-million player. They’ll be selling low, but plenty of teams would have interest in his upside, and GM Pat Verbeek simply can’t be paying anyone this much to sit in the press box this often.
Vincent Trocheck, C, New York Rangers
Age: 32
Cap hit: $5,625,000 through 2028-29
(10-team no-trade list)
The Blueshirts aren’t obligated to move Trocheck the way they were the expiring Artemi Panarin a few months ago, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea to explore a trade now while Trocheck’s value remains high. With his mix of scoring ability, agitation tactics, physicality and faceoff acumen, he’d be a dream No. 2 center for almost any contender, even if his defensive game has slipped.
Jordan Binnington, G, St. Louis Blues
Age: 32
Cap hit: $6,000,000 through 2026-27
(10-team no-trade list)
Binnington is coming off the worst season of his career but showed enough at the Olympics to remind us he can be an asset on the right team given his puckhandling and clutch-save ability. Is there enough of a market for him right now? The Edmonton Oilers are the clear team to watch. We shouldn’t sleep on the Florida Panthers, either, if they opt not to re-sign Sergei Bobrovsky.
Jonathan Marchessault, RW, Nashville Predators
Age: 35
Cap hit: $5,500,000 through 2028-29
(15-team no-trade list)
Is Marchessault worth taking on for three more seasons? Was his 42-goal campaign at 33 years old an extreme outlier a couple seasons back? Given his competitiveness and playoff success, he’d still be a pretty nice depth add if the Predators retained some money. They don’t have a GM yet, but the organizational thinking suggests Marchessault is the most likely veteran on the team to get dealt this offseason, Di Marco reported earlier this month.
Ilya Lyubushkin, D, Dallas Stars
Age: 32
Cap hit: $3,250,000 through 2026-27
Cap casualty alert. The Stars need to bolster the right side of their D-corps yet don’t even have enough cap space to re-sign RFA forwards Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque at the moment. They’ll have to jettison some money, so they may as well start with someone who hasn’t met the standard they need from his position. Moving Lyubushkin would at least buy GM Jim Nill a bit of breathing room.
TIER 2: Names to keep an eye on
Alexis Lafreniere, RW, New York Rangers
Age: 24
Cap hit: $7,450,000 through 2031-32
So far, his career-best numbers of 2023-24 look more like an anomaly than a breakout. But the 2020 No. 1 overall pick is just 24 years old, and the 2024 playoff run in which he bullied his way to a 6-8-14 stat line in 16 games represents his potential. Particularly in a rising-cap world, a team looking to add some cost-controlled upside might be willing to invest in a career turnaround. Speaking of which: raise your hand if you knew Lafreniere had 25 points in 25 games after the Olympic break and tied his personal best with 57 points.
Blake Coleman, LW, Calgary Flames
Age: 34
Cap hit: $4,900,000 through 2026-27
(10-team trade list)
He’s a proven two-time Stanley Cup winner who can deliver 20 goals, occasionally more, while assisting on the penalty kill and playing a feisty, physical game. What contender wouldn’t want him for third-line and PK1 work? Think of Coleman as a stand-in for many Flames veterans; sources indicate to Daily Faceoff that they remain open to trading almost anyone not named Dustin Wolf, Zayne Parekh, Matt Coronato or Matvei Gridin. Coleman and perhaps Zach Whitecloud have the most immediate value, but the Flames don’t have to sell off pieces immediately. They could easily wait until next March, when Coleman will make for an attractive rental.
Dougie Hamilton, D, New Jersey Devils
Age: 32
Cap hit: $9,000,000 through 2027-28
(10-team trade list)
Hamilton will always have his knuckle-draggin’ haters as a player with lackadaisical body language, but he’s perennially a strong play-driving defenseman, and his scoring rebounded massively from January onward with eight goals 31 points in 41 games – a 16-goal, 62-point pace. The Tom Fitzgerald regime was interested in offloading Hamilton’s AAV, but the under-the-hood numbers showed Hamilton had a good all-round year, and the Devils’ analytically minded new GM Sunny Mehta might appreciate Hamilton’s game more.
Shane Wright, C, Seattle Kraken
Age: 22
Cap hit: $866,667 through 2026-27
The Kraken were searching for a splashy addition to their top-six forward group and potentially willing to sacrifice Wright to do so over the winter. Wright would be a fascinating buy if still on the block; he still has another year left at his entry-level AAV, and he has proven to be an efficient scorer in his (extremely) limited opportunities, averaging 17 goals per 82 games for his career despite playing only 13:40 per night.
Jordan Kyrou, RW, St. Louis Blues
Age: 28
Cap hit: $8,125,000 through 2030-31
(No-trade clause)
Kyrou’s a first-line talent with three 30-goal campaigns to his name. But he was a disaster this year (offensively but not defensively), an $8.125-million healthy scratch at one point, and it sure feels like he could use a reset on a new team. Note that he controls his destiny via a full no-trade clause that doesn’t become a modified no-trade until the final season of his deal.
Elias Pettersson, C, Vancouver Canucks
Age: 27
Cap hit: $11,600,000 through 2031-32
(No-movement clause)
Pettersson doesn’t get enough credit for his all-around play, but, yes, he’s nowhere close to an $11.6-million player right now. That’s a monstrous cap hit to navigate. Still. Pettersson is still young enough to reassert himself as a star if he finds the right situation.
Brad Lambert, C, Winnipeg Jets
Age: 22
Cap hit: $886,667 through 2026-27
As insider Frank Seravalli reported earlier this season, Lambert was granted permission to seek a trade. Even during his draft year, he carried boom-bust status as a clearly gifted but volatile talent, and he’s skewed more toward the bust side, struggling to break through and earn a large opportunity at the NHL level. Still, he’s young enough and skilled enough that perhaps he’d blossom on a team willing to play him more.
Mason Lohrei, D, Boston Bruins
Age: 25
Cap hit: $3,200,000 through 2026-27
Lohrei has great size and some puck-moving acumen, but coach Marco Sturm only trusted him enough to use him in three playoff games, healthy-scratching the $3.2-million defenseman. Lohrei feels like the kind of player who needs to join a fledgling organization that will give him the leeway to make mistakes in a larger role.
Colton Parayko, D, St. Louis Blues
Age: 33
Cap hit: $6,500,000 through 2029-30
(No-trade clause)
Parayko nixed a trade to the Buffalo Sabres before the deadline. On one hand, that told us he still decides if and where he goes. On the other hand, we know the Blues were willing to part with him, so we can expect outgoing GM Doug Armstrong and/or incoming GM Alex Steen to deal with additional offers for the hulking rearguard.
Darnell Nurse, D, Edmonton Oilers
Age: 31
Cap hit: $9,250,000 through 2029-30
(No-movement clause)
The Oilers simply must find a way. They barely have the cap space even to re-sign the UFAs and maintain status quo on a roster Connor McDavid called “average,” and the goal is to get better. If it means 50 percent retention on Nurse’s AAV, the Oilers have to consider anything that improves their Stanley Cup chances across McDavid’s two-year contract. Nurse would have to waive his NMC for any deal, of course, but after more than a decade in Copper and Blue, might he want a respite from the pressure cooker anyway?
Robert Thomas, C, St. Louis Blues
Age: 26
Cap hit: $8,125,000 through 2030-31
(No-trade clause)
Every bit of information that trickled out leading up to the Trade Deadline indicated it would take quite an offer to pry St. Louis’ No. 1 center away. Over the past three seasons, he’s fifth in assists per 60 at 5-on-5 league-wide. He’s 26 and in his prime. The Blues would want to trade him why, exactly? His list of suitors would huge because he doesn’t only appeal to an all-in contender; a rising team hoping for years of sustained success should be just as interested given he’s under contract for another half decade.
Linus Ullmark, G, Ottawa Senators
Age: 32
Cap hit: $8,250,000 through 2028-29
(No-movement clause)
Kudos to Ullmark for fighting through his mental health issues to get his game on track. He was easily Ottawa’s best player during its sweep loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 1. But after such a taxing year, might he prefer to play in a different market? He would be represent an upgrade for a handful of goalie-starved teams.
Sam Montembeault, G, Montreal Canadiens
Age: 29
Cap hit: $3,150,000 through 2026-27
Yes, he was always keeping the seat warm for Jacob Fowler, but we all thought Montembeault had a lot more time, right? His game went in the toilet this season, costing him an Olympic roster spot with Canada and earning him a conditioning stint with AHL Laval, and the Habs net belongs to Jakob Dobes now, with Fowler riding shotgun. With just a year remaining on his deal and only a season removed from being a pretty effective starter, Montembeault could warrant a buy-low offer.
Rasmus Ristolainen, D, Philadelphia Flyers
Age: 31
Cap hit: $5,100,000 through 2026-27
Ristolainen got healthy and proved an important part of Philly’s blueline in its push from outside the playoffs to the second round. He averaged an even 25 minutes of ice time across 10 games. But he’s exiting his prime and on the final season of his deal; would he a worthy casualty if he helped the Flyers land another scoring-line center in a trade?
Filip Gustavsson, G, Minnesota Wild
Age: 27
Cap hit: $6,800,000 through 2030-31
(No-movement clause)
Gustavsson has been excellent more often than not during his tenure with Minnesota. He’s quietly just 27. He’s about to start a new five-year contract. But he’s been usurped as the 1A by Jesper Wallstedt, and $6.8 million suddenly looks like a lot for a 1B. The Wild need to stay aggressive if they want to keep up in the vicious Central Division while they still have Quinn Hughes. Could Gustavsson be a necessary sacrifice?
Jake DeBrusk, LW, Vancouver Canucks
Age: 29
Cap hit: $5,500,000 through 2030-31
(No-movement clause)
Finding the right fit won’t be easy given all that term left on his deal. But the streaky DeBrusk could augment a contender; he averages 26 goals per 82 games in the postseason for his career. It’s a matter of whether short-term help is worth the long-term sting on your cap.
Anthony Stolarz, G, Toronto Maple Leafs
Age: 32
Cap hit: $3,750,000 through 2029-30
(16-team no-trade list)
The Leafs have a logjam forming in net between Stolarz, Woll and the emerging Dennis Hildeby, with Artur Akhtyamov also showing promise in the AHL. If you have to move one netminder from the stable: Stolarz is the oldest, the most expensive, has the worst injury history, and has played the poorest of the group this season. Could that make him the odd man out? On the flip side, all those traits might give him the lowest trade value among Toronto’s tenders.
Brandon Carlo, D, Toronto Maple Leafs
Age: 29
Cap hit: $3,845,000 through 2026-27 (15% of $4,100,000 retained by BOS)
(Three-team no-trade list)
Mike Komisarek 2.0? Carlo was big, physically imposing, heavy on opposing forwards…until he became a Maple Leaf, apparently. Maybe that’s because he wasn’t healthy, dealing with a foot injury that required surgery after a setback. Or maybe Carlo isn’t cut out for the market. Still just 29, he could return to form in the right situation, and his AAV remains a bargain. He seemingly fit a need for the Leafs a year ago, but now they’re big, slow and redundant on ‘D.’
Adin Hill, G, Vegas Golden Knights
Age: 30
Cap hit: $6,250,000 through 2030-31
(Modified no-trade list)
Similar to Minnesota’s situation: you can’t justify paying a goalie $6.25 million to ride the pine. Carter Hart is Vegas’ starter. The league’s most cutthroat franchise surely won’t want to keep Hill on the payroll any longer than it has to. Any suitor would be buying extremely low, as he’s coming off a terrible and injury-shortened season, but his Stanley Cup winning pedigree remains a potential selling point.
Morgan Rielly, D, Toronto Maple Leafs
Age: 32
Cap hit: $7,500,000 through 2029-30
(No-movement clause)
The Leafs and new GM John Chayka find themselves in quite the quagmire with Rielly. He’s no longer the puck-moving defenseman they need him to be. He’s not a $7.5-million player despite his scoring contributions and leadership. The team would likely be better off moving on from him – but he controls whether he goes at all via his NMC, and his trade value isn’t particularly high given the performance doesn’t match the price tag.
Owen Tippett, RW, Philadelphia Flyers
Age: 27
Cap hit: $6,200,000 through 2031-32
(10-team no-trade list)
With Porter Martone and Tyson Foerster emerging as go-to wingers, might the Flyers be willing to deal Tippett for help at another position? The interest would be sky-high. He’s a crash-and-bang power forward, yet his max skating speed places him in the league’s 84th percentile. He’s a unique enough player to attract an overpay.
Simon Nemec, D, New Jersey Devils
Age: 22
Restricted free agent
The Devils reportedly took some calls on Nemec over the winter. But when we factor in his age, pedigree and upside, I wonder if Mehta wipes the slate clean and dismisses the idea of moving Nemec. We’ll keep him on the board for now since we know there was interest in him.
TIER 3: Big stars, big swings
Auston Matthews, C, Toronto Maple Leafs: A report surfaced from The Athletic’s Chris Johnston last week that Matthews, who has two seasons remaining on his contract, wasn’t sure if he’d be back with the team next season. It remains to be seen if winning the NHL Draft Lottery changed his thinking. But if Matthews wants out, the Leafs could sell him for a major haul leading up to the NHL Draft and kickstart a new era centered on probable No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna – plus any other young assets Matthews could bring in. The firing of Craig Berube, whose shutdown-role deployment of Matthews was frequently befuddling, could help sway Matthews toward staying, though Chayka stated Wednesday that no players were consulted on the firing, so it apparently wasn’t an “appease Matthews” decision.
Brady Tkachuk, LW, Ottawa Senators: He’s been adamant about being committed to the team, but with two years remaining on his deal and the memory of the Quinn Hughes situation a year ago still fresh in our minds, we won’t know Tkachuk is a lifelong Senator until he’s eligible to put pen to paper on an extension beginning in July 2027. Until then: the trade talk will persist.
Adam Fox, D, New York Rangers: From the Ranger retool, to not making the Olympic team coached by Rangers bench boss Mike Sullivan, to Fox’s cryptic comments to the media about his future as the season wound down…it feels like there’s an opening for another team to swoop in try and pry him away.
Jason Robertson, LW, Dallas Stars: Only eight players have more points over the past five seasons. The Stars would be foolish to push him out. But Robertson’s contract negotiations with them have been frosty in the past, they are low on cap space, and they badly need help on defense. Could Nill search for a major hockey trade to better balance his roster?
TIER 4: Names to watch based on roster surpluses
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, G, Buffalo Sabres
Alex Lyon, G, Buffalo Sabres
Colten Ellis, G, Buffalo Sabres
Devon Levi, G, Buffalo Sabres
Pavel Mintyukov, D, Anaheim Ducks
Owen Zellweger, D, Anaheim Ducks
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