The NHL's March 1 Trade Deadline is fast approaching and teams are making decisions on whether to buy, sell, and decide which players can make the biggest difference and hold the greatest value. Check out today's trade rumours and speculation from around the NHL beat.


The Kane Dilemma

The Buffalo Sabres have a decision to make when it comes to controversial forward Evander Kane.

After an incredibly slow start and missing time with cracked ribs, the 25-year-old winger is on pace to have one of the better seasons of his career, netting 16 goals and 10 assists over 43 games.  

With Kane's trade value being much higher right now than it was over the summer, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News is wondering if the Sabres should sell Kane when they can get the most for him or keep him around as a core guy. Harrington says trading Kane for a top four defenceman could be a possibility with the likes of the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks as possible suitors. 

The native of Vancouver has one more year left on his contract following this season with a cap hit of $5.25 million. 

The Sabres are six points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and are on the path to miss the NHL's second season for a sixth straight year. 

General manager Tim Murray said he hasn't made any calls regarding Kane, but is always willing to listen to offers. 

"He plays a hard, gritty, heavy game with speed and that's a rare, rare combination," Murray said in Harrington's article. "Is there a crazy deal somebody could throw at me that would force me to do it? I guess there is. ... I'm not throwing rumors out there getting a media guy to help me and say, 'Evander is available.' That type of thing. Not at all.”

Murray would go on to say "he's the type of guy I think we need if we want to be competitive every night and we want to be a playoff team."

The Winnipeg Jets traded Kane, alongside Zach Bogosian, to Buffalo in February 2015 for Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, prospects and a first-round pick. 

 

Adding Picks, Not Selling Them

Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden reiterated Friday the team will not part with draft picks ahead of March 1.

Linden told TSN Radio 1040 Vancouver, the Canucks will be involved in conversations but aren't looking to lose assets.

Linden: Will be in the trade conversation, won't give up picks or assets

Canucks president Trevor Linden says they have been in conversations with teams about trades, but reiterated the fact they will not part with assets no matter where they are in the standings at the trade deadline on March 1st.

“Just to go back about 30 months ago, when we kinda got into this we realized that we were headed into a pretty significant transition," Linden said. "I think there have been some pretty encouraging things this year, with the emergence of (Troy) Stecher and (Nikita) Tryamkin, and certainly Bo (Horvat), and Markus Granlund and Sven (Baertschi), so we’re seeing some positives there. We wanted to get younger, we needed to get younger, we needed to improve our prospect pool. 

"Just like last year, we’ll go into (this year’s trade) deadline with (the mindset where) we’d love to add picks, certainly that would be nice. We definitely aren’t looking to move any draft picks, and I think it’s important to keep in mind, too, that the trade deadline doesn’t make or break your team. It’s a team building exercise, you build your team through trades, the draft, college free agents, etc. We’ll be in the conversations and obviously, these are complicated scenarios. You need a willing trade partner, you need player cooperation. We all make trades in our head and they’re all pretty simple, but they’re a lot more complicated than that.

"So, we’ll be in the conversation and we’ll see where that puts us.” 

Linden said earlier this month that the looming Las Vegas expansion draft would keep them from adding assets at the trade deadline.

The Canucks sit six points back of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
 

Buy or Sell?

The New York Islanders are right in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference playoff race, and Arthur Staple of Newsday believes the Isles will likely look to add assets to the team rather than sell them.

Staple writes Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene is on the top of their list and doubts they'd have much interest in Detroit Red Wings forward Thomas Vanek as a rental. Young defenceman Calvin de Haan could be on the market as trade bait and the Isles might look for someone to add scoring on the second and third lines behind John Tavares, according to Staple. 

Even if they wanted to be sellers, Staple doesn't think they would get a whole lot for some of their trade candidates like Ryan Strome or Dennis Seidenberg. 

 

From TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger

Dreger: Possibility Leafs don't add impact D-man before deadline

TSN Hockey insider Darren Dreger joins Naylor & Landsberg to discuss which defenceman the Maple Leafs might target before the deadline, if they will be able to add anyone, Carey Price's struggles and more.

 

From TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie 

McKenzie: Oilers likely to try to solve secondary scoring from within

TSN 1260 hockey insider Bob McKenzie joined Nielson & Fraser to discuss what the Oilers will be looking for as far as trades go leading up to the deadline, and why it's more likely they try to solve their secondary scoring issues from within the organization.

 

From Pierre McGuire

McGuire: Sens shouldn't mortgage future for Duchene or Landeskog

NBC's Pierre McGuire on the strong play of Dion Phaneuf, Guy Boucher playing with 11 forwards, Islanders have upped their defensive game under Doug Weight, Carey Price's recent struggles, Minnesota Wild and that Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog are nice pieces but the Sens shouldn't give up too much to get them.