Finally, exchanging significant futures for rental players at the trade deadline is probably the most inefficient talent acquisition method in the NHL. It’s a necessary evil for contending teams to consider, of course, but it’s a difficult way to improve a team and a wildly easy avenue through which to bleed value.
The rental market isn’t particularly strong this season. There just isn’t much in the way of star-level talent on expiring deals and the talent that is available is further depleted by the uncertainty of the NHL playoff race. There’s a wide swath of teams that won’t be nearly ready to wave the white flag on their season just yet, while the teams that are already clear sellers are shockingly bereft of the sort of talent that might add substantive marginal value to a contender’s lineup going into the postseason.
As the NHL trade market begins to take shape with the deadline just five-and-a-half weeks away now, we figured we’d spend some time looking at Canucks targets among those players most likely to move ahead of March 8: the pending unrestricted free-agent “rentals.” We’ll examine potential targets with term remaining later in the week.
The prices are inflated, the market is competitive, the time allotted for a new acquisition to get up to speed is short and the stakes are sky high. It’s no wonder some of the biggest trade mistakes in hockey history happen at or right around the deadline.
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