Will the star player trade requests eventually balance out, or is it a sign of a bigger trend?

The era of player demands in the NHL has arrived. With the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Connor Hellebuyck, and Quinn Hughes demanding their way out of their Canadian teams to sign with U.S. NHL clubs, a burgeoning trend of superstars taking the future into their own hands is emerging. 

So when Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov requested a trade, it came as a shock—and for some, followed a similar trend to other stars around the league. 

On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down whether the recent moves are just the start of a trend, or whether the situation could even out as the salary cap grows. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: With all these star players requesting trades, was this a coming trend because the salary cap is rising after a flat COVID era, or is it a small window of time with just a few players that will balance out?

I think it’s more the latter, and this will balance out at some point. I think you’ll also get kind of a counter-movement of guys who want to be loyal, and I also think the Kucherov thing is totally different. 

I wanted to highlight a quote from Brandon Hagel yesterday. Hagel said: “He’s done everything he possibly could for the city. It’s not like he committed here for eight years and asked out two years into it.” This is a different situation, and I agree with Hagel, and I think it’s bang on. This isn’t Brady Tkachuk or Connor Hellebuyck. This is Nikita Kucherov; he feels disrespected, and he’s at the end of his contract. He feels like he earned a bit more respect, so now he wants to play somewhere else. 

Carter Hutton: Yeah, and in a sense, you could say that him coming out and making this public is like doing a favor to the fan base, being like, “Hey, my contract is coming to an end. I would rather you guys get something for me than me to walk and not be respected in the deal that they’re trying to give me.” 

I think it’s great right there, and I think that also shows you the galvanization of that locker room during this time, and the fact that they have his back and they’re going to continue to compete and be in that situation. 

I think it’ll even things out, like all these contracts and everything. We saw Alex DeBrincat take a deal in a market where he wanted to be, and I think it’s always going to go to the player, and I think that’s an important factor for all of this. You have to take care of the player’s individual needs because, at the end of the day, the team’s going to do what it needs to. 

You can catch the rest of the discussion and the full recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE right here…