The midseason break wrapped up for some of the NHL teams yesterday and the Pacific Division teams get back into action starting today. For some, like the Edmonton Oilers, the break came at the worst time. The Oilers have a 16-game win streak on the line, and taking some time off could upset the team’s rhythm. On the other end of the spectrum, after holding onto a playoff spot for the first half of the season, the Los Angeles Kings have fallen down to a wildcard spot. The time off allowed the team to retool and fire Head Coach Todd McLellan. Who knows if it will work.
We’re also nearing the trade deadline, where teams will have to decide if they’re buyers or sellers. It seems like the Calgary Flames have already made the call. The team has traded away Elias Lindholm to an obvious buyer in the Vancouver Canucks. The Vegas Golden Knights will likely make a move as well, though getting healthy is the biggest focus right now. While the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks are obvious sellers, the Seattle Kraken are a bit in no man’s land right now and need to make a decision very soon.
Here’s how the Pacific Division teams look coming out of the break.
1. Vancouver Canucks (33-11-5, 71 points)
The Canucks were the first to make a big splash in the arms race for the playoffs. Just before the break, Vancouver received Lindholm from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko, a first-round pick in 2024, a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024 and defensive prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo.
In Lindholm, Vancouver receives a two-way center that can play on the team’s second line. It’s a major piece for a team currently competing for the President’s Trophy. Better yet, the Canucks didn’t have to give up any depth pieces in return. Kuzmenko wasn’t cutting it with the Flames and the rest, well, they were just pieces in the cupboard for Vancouver’s future.
This seems like a go for it year for Vancouver, so selling assets to make a run makes sense.
Vancouver already has what it needs in net. While many teams are looking for that starting goaltender, Thatcher Demko is already filling that role. He’s near the top of the league in goalie wins. Combine that with the scoring of J.T. Miller, who is on pace for 112 points this season, as well as Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, and it’s no wonder that the team has a plus 61-goal differential.
Vancouver’s post All-Star break season resumes today.
2. Vegas Golden Knights (29-15-6, 64 points)
For much of the season, the Golden Knights were keeping pace with the Canucks and battling it out for the top spot in the Pacific Division. However, injuries have made wins hard to come by as of late and now Vegas is in danger of falling to third in the division as the Oilers charge up the standings.
The Golden Knights were missing starting goaltender Adin Hill for more than a month. Hill played two games before the break, but he hadn’t played since Dec. 17, 2023 before that. When you lose the league leader in goals against average (1.94) and save percentage (.936), it can hurt your team.
So can losing your top forward. Jack Eichel was injured on Jan. 11 and had surgery a few days later. He isn’t expected to return until late February or early March. Considering that Eichel is second on the team in scoring, this is a big hit to the Golden Knights.
Vegas is also missing Tobias Bjornfot, William Carrier (he had surgery on Jan. 10), William Karlsson (he might return today), Ben Hutton, Shea Theodore (he had surgery on Nov. 29) and Pavel Dorofeyev.
Vegas resumes play today against the Oilers.
3. Edmonton Oilers (29-15-1, 59 points)
Watch out because those Edmonton Oilers are burning up the standings. When we last checked in on the Oilers at the beginning of January, the team was in fourth place in the Pacific Division and not in the playoff picture. At the time, Edmonton had won six in a row. Today, that total has ratcheted up to 16. I wouldn’t want to jinx them or anything, but 16 games in a row is closing in on the Pittsburgh Penguins (1992-93) for the longest winning streak in NHL history. To get that 17th win, the Oilers will have to go through the Golden Knights.
Obviously, this turn of fate since firing the team’s head coach has put the Oilers in a buying position at the trade deadline. Honestly, there was virtually no world where Edmonton would be doing anything but buying at the deadline. The real question is, what can the team buy?
The Edmonton Journal thinks a third or fourth line, two-way center with “some size, faceoff prowess and PK experience” might be on the team’s radar. Would the Sharks be willing to part with Nico Sturm at the right price? Just a thought.
The Edmonton fan base has been stirring the pot with the possibility of acquiring Jake Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins. This, of course, relies on the idea that Pittsburgh wants to part with Guentzel, which is iffy at best.
The Oilers have already added the necessary “Cup pedigree” ingredient by signing Corey Perry. A defenseman may be in order. Jim Parsons of the Hockey Writers said that Cody Ceci could be moved out to make room for the right piece.
4. Los Angeles Kings (23-15-10, 56 points)
The Kings possibly made its biggest move ahead of the trade deadline and it had nothing to do with adding new players. Los Angeles fired Head Coach Todd McLellan and slid Jim Hiller in as the interim head coach.
After starting the season as one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, things started coming apart in December. LA is 3-5-2 in its last ten games and 3-8-6 in its last 17 games. With Edmonton doing its thing, it was virtually inevitable that LA would fall out of the race.
All of this didn’t come out of nowhere. You could tell something was wrong in the lockerroom when Drew Doughty called out his teammates on Jan. 24.
“I think we’ve got guys in this room that are too worried about themselves and worried about their points and worried about stuff like that,” Doughty told the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve got a 3-1 lead tonight, and guys start thinking it’s a cookie night. And we stopped playing the way we know how to play. Have an awful second period and aren’t much better in the third. It’s about the team. It’s not about yourself. And a lot of guys on this team need to realize that.”
Anze Kopitar wasn’t much happier.
“What I see is we’re not playing as a team right now,” Kopitar said in that same article. “Worrying about scoring goals too much and not buying into the stuff that made us successful the first 30, 35 games of the year, and it’s frustrating. We’re going to have to correct it and we’re going to have to correct it in a hurry.”
We’ll see if a coaching change fixes everything. LA’s next game is Feb. 10.
5. Seattle Kraken (21-19-10, 52 points)
Are the Kraken in the race for a playoff spot? Yes.
Do their odds of getting it look good? No.
The Kraken is in a funny limbo. The team is just two points behind the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators. St. Louis has the second wild card spot in the Western Conference right now but also has a game in hand. Los Angeles has four points more than Seattle and two games in hand. In other words, Seattle is chasing already and not in the best place to catch up. What’s more, Arizona and Calgary are close on the Kraken’s heels, so a slip up drops the Kraken further back in the race.
Seattle made a small move in December to get Tomas Tatar. Since the trade, Tatar has 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in 19 games with the Kraken. The team hasn’t improved its lot in the league since the trade. Seattle is 4-5-1 in its last 10 games.
The Seattle Times’ Geoff Baker believes that the Kraken will stand pat at the trade deadline, though some small trades for future assets isn’t out of the question. Jordan Eberle, Alex Wennberg and Justin Schultz are all pending free agents. While Baker believes that Eberle is too important for a potential playoff push to trade, Wennberg could be replaced with prospect Shane Wright and Schultz’s role might be filled by Ryker Evans. The return for either player would not be massive.
Seattle is back in action on Feb. 10.
6. Calgary Flames (22-22-5, 49 points)
Calgary has made its decision; the team is open for business. Trading Lindholm to the Canucks makes it clear that General Manager Craig Conroy is listening to offers. Considering the return that Conroy received for pending free agent Lindholm, he’s not doing badly. A late first-round pick and a fourth rounder this year is good. Plus, he got some prospects and a lineup piece out of the deal. It’s clear Conroy thinks that Kuzmenko can add something to the team this season, and the addition of defensive prospects Brzustewicz and Jurmo might make it easier to trade the team’s top defensemen.
Calgary clearly has some of the best pieces on the trade market. Pending free agent defenseman Chris Tanev has a lot of suitors, then there’s Noah Hanifin, another unrestricted free agent defenseman. Conroy should get at least one more first-round pick if he trades one or both of them before the deadline.
The biggest question facing the Flames, however, is what to do with goaltender Jacob Markstrom. If the Flames trade him away, it could be a sign that the team doesn’t think it will compete next season. If the Flames keep him, then maybe it sends the message that this is a retool not a rebuild.
Goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf is making the decision more difficult. Wolf is doing great in the AHL and was recently in San Jose for the AHL All-Star game. The Gilroy native was last year’s AHL MVP and is having a second stellar season. It might be time to see if he can handle the NHL.
There’s lots going on for the Flames, who return to action today.
7. Anaheim Ducks (18-30-2, 38 points)
The Ducks already made one big move in early January when the team swapped defensive prospect Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick for Cutter Gauthier. The trade was good for both teams. The Ducks had a clogged-up blueline, and adding Gauthier while alleviating some of that logjam was a steal.
It looks like Anaheim isn’t done dealing. John Gibson looks like a top trade target, though his contract will not be easy to move. Gibson has three more seasons after this one, with an AAV of $6.4 million.
Other Ducks possibly on the trade list include defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Veteran center Adam Henrique is likely to get a lot more interest now that other top centers like Sean Monahan and Lindholm are off the market. Anaheim’s All-Star representative, Frank Vatrano, is also garnering interest. To say Vatrano is having a career year is an understatement. He has 22 goals in 50 games, and his career high is 24 goals in 81 games. There are also rumors that Trevor Zegras might be available at the right price.
The Ducks have a lot of pieces that can possibly be dealt at the deadline for assets and picks, making the team extremely scary a few seasons down the road.
Anaheim returns to play on Feb. 9.
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