The NHL trade deadline is just six Utah Hockey Club games away. It’s time to start thinking about what the team is going to do.
The question that general managers have to answer at this time of year is whether they want to be buyers, sellers or keepers. It’s a tricky one for a team like Utah, which sits six points out of a playoff spot with only two teams to jump ahead of.
It is close enough that it could realistically make it, especially as they anticipate the return of Logan Cooley and Sean Durzi shortly after the 4 Nations Face-Off. But the team is also far enough out of the playoffs that a lot of things would have to go right for them to land a spot.
A number of factors play into Utah’s decision.
First, this is a seller’s market. The playoff race is so tight that there are only a few teams that have accepted defeat. Nearly everyone has a shot at making it, so most teams will hog their players and look to add more.
Low supply combined with high demand results in high prices.
Fans may have recognized how high the prices are with the premium the Vancouver Canucks had to pay to pry Marcus Pettersson out of the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Teams stuck on the verge of the playoffs can take advantage of the high prices by making players available. They’d be able to acquire more things that would help them be better in the future. But is that in Utah’s best interest?
Kind of.
In his address to the media ahead of training camp in September, general manager Bill Armstrong told the media that he’s looking to build on the young core he currently has.
“We can never have enough picks, but we’re past that point at this stage,” he said. “We’re interested in building upon what we have and moving forward.”
In other words, Utah’s foundation is already set. Drafting more players doesn’t do them much good because they won’t be at the NHL level for another three to five years, at which point players like Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev could be out of their prime.
So, rather than acquiring draft picks at the deadline, the team needs to add players who are at the same stage of development as the young guys they already have. It kills two birds with one stone, helping the team in both the present and the future.
Thankfully for Utah, there are loads of players like that who could be available.
Here are the criteria: young, available and skilled. These are probably players who have underperformed in the NHL, despite having high levels of success in juniors or college.
With that in mind, here are a few names that could benefit Utah both now and in the foreseeable future.
Specifically, Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram, Jack Quinn and Peyton Krebs. Dare I even throw Owen Power into the conversation?
Most of these guys were thrust into big-time NHL roles at young ages, and they’ve all struggled in comparison to what everyone originally expected of them. The opportunity to play for a more patient staff in Utah could benefit them greatly.
It’s also worth pointing out that Quinn’s best years were under Utah coaches André Tourigny and Mario Duhamel with the OHL’s Ottawa 67s. A reunion would surely be welcome for the 2019 eighth-overall pick.
Trevor Zegras is the consensus flashiest player in the NHL: He scores goals that were never imagined until he scored them. The problem is that he doesn’t score enough goals — fancy or otherwise.
Trevor Zegras with the shootout beauty#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/M4BuyMz5fu
Questions have risen this season about Ducks head coach Greg Cronin’s compatibility with his players. Cronin is known for demanding a lot from individuals, which isn’t always received well by young guys.
Before Cronin took over in Anaheim, Zegras had a 61-point and a 65-point season at ages 20 and 21, respectively. In both of his seasons since Cronin’s hiring, he’s played at a 38-point pace.
A change of scenery could be exactly what Zegras needs. Tourigny is notorious for helping young players find their way. He might have what it takes to turn Zegras back into the player he once was.
It wasn’t long ago that Dawson Mercer surprised the world as a 20-year-old, scoring 17 goals and 42 points in 2021-22. It wouldn’t have been considered bold at that point to predict that he’d play for Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics.
But it just hasn’t shaken out that way.
Since that season, Mercer’s play has remained in that same neighborhood in terms of production. He’s not bad by any means, but he hasn’t broken through the offensive ceiling the way everyone thought he would.
A trade to Utah would open the door for him to play more minutes, especially on the power play — Utah’s second unit could really use a boost. With any luck, he could get back on track and become a 70-point player or better.
Utah fans might remember Kirby Dach from his two-goal effort in Salt Lake City on Jan. 15. It was that type of play that led the Chicago Blackhawks to draft him third overall in 2019, but he just hasn’t been able to do it with any type of consistency in the NHL.
il s'est fait Dachulotter
Lights. Camera. Dachtion.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/IgQ7ykW8J4
Acquiring Dach could bring high reward, but there’s also a high risk — and it has nothing to do with the torn ACL and MCL that sidelined him for all but two games last season. It’s that he’s already on his second team, and it hasn’t worked out the way either team had hoped.
That being said, you don’t need every player to be a top goal scorer. Dach has proven himself as a middle-six center who will score 30-plus points per season. He’s big and physical and he can play up and down a lineup. That’s valuable.
Teams looking to make playoff pushes typically value veterans with proven experience whose contracts expire at the end of the season. It’s this type of player that can give a team enough depth to get over the hump and win the Cup.
That’s what the Florida Panthers did last season when they acquired Kyle Okposo and Vladimir Tarasenko at the trade deadline. Neither guy turned into a top scorer, but both played key depth roles and brought veteran leadership en route to the franchise’s first championship.
Utah has a handful of players like that. It’s likely that lots of them will end up re-signing, but any that don’t plan on coming back could be valuable assets on the trade market.
You might notice, though, that most of the teams mentioned above are currently on the outside of the playoffs, looking in. Those teams have little use for veterans on expiring deals. This is where Utah can play copycat.
As mentioned, the Canucks acquired Pettersson from the Penguins. The key piece of the return was a first-round pick, which the Canucks had acquired just hours earlier from the New York Rangers in the JT Miller trade.
Utah can follow suit: trade players for picks, and then trade those picks for the young players that could help them move from the rebuilding stage to the Stanley Cup contention stage.
The trade deadline is at 1 p.m. MST on March 7.
