Mailbag: Avalanche, Red Wings, Panthers among teams under pressure to make trades before Deadline

Here is the March 5 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X and Bluesky. Send your questions to @drosennhl on X and @drosennhl.bsky.social on Bluesky, and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

Which teams face the most pressure to make meaningful deals from now until the trade deadline? -- @MrEd315

The 2025 NHL Trade Deadline is Friday at 3 p.m. ET.

The Colorado Avalanche have already made one move, acquiring defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Jimmy Vesey from the New York Rangers. The Avalanche have cap space, and they need to use it for depth at forward, possibly a second-line center to slide in ahead of Casey Mittelstadt and play with Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin. Colorado is in a Stanley Cup window and must operate with that in mind.

The Detroit Red Wings need to replace center Andrew Copp, who is out for the rest of the season following surgery for a left pectoral tendon. The Red Wings haven't made the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2015-16. They missed by a tiebreaker to the Washington Capitals last season. They are in position to get in. They need to be a buyer to replace Copp and bolster them for the stretch run. Patience is out the door.

The Edmonton Oilers got help Tuesday by adding Trent Frederic, a 6-foot-3, 221-pound center who has 155 hits in 57 games this season with the Boston Bruins. The Oilers needed size up front, and they got it, but again need help on defense. They can't let the Deadline pass without adding to their blue line.

The Florida Panthers have room with Matthew Tkachuk going on long-term injured reserve, likely for the rest of the regular season, to beef up for another Cup run. Seth Jones was a nice addition and the right move for the Panthers at the right price. They traded Spencer Knight to the Chicago Blackhawks in that deal, so getting Vitek Vanecek from the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday gives them a backup goalie that they need to keep Sergei Bobrovsky fresh. Getting another fresh skater or two, players who haven't been beaten up by consecutive runs to the Stanley Cup Final, will help them in the long run too.

The Los Angeles Kings could use a jolt of offense if they want to compete against the Vegas Golden Knights or Oilers in the Western Conference First Round.

The New Jersey Devils already had good reason to have a third-line center on their wish list before Jack Hughes sustained an upper-body injury in Vegas on Sunday. The need for better than that might escalate depending on the severity. Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said Tuesday in Dallas that they did not have the full scope of the injury and were awaiting test results. He did say what we all were thinking: It did not look good for Hughes when he went into the end boards at T-Mobile Arena.

The New York Islanders should trade pending unrestricted free agent forwards Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri. They’re struggling and behind in the playoff race. They could start retooling the roster to get younger now. Palmieri is 34 and Nelson is 33.

Who do the Devils need? -- @buckstang02

As mentioned above, the need for a center was already there before Hughes was injured. Now it's doubly important for the Devils to add down the middle to help them secure at least second or third in the Metropolitan Division, which is not a given anymore for them or the Carolina Hurricanes. It doesn't have to be a rental. In fact, it'd be better for New Jersey and its Stanley Cup window if it was a player who had term remaining on his contract, e.g. Ryan Strome of the Anaheim Ducks, Ryan O'Reilly of the Nashville Predators and Scott Laughton of the Philadelphia Flyers (this one seems unlikely, though).

It's also possible the Devils could look to add a wing (e.g. Palmieri). If they do that, they must be confident that Dawson Mercer and Erik Haula can handle the duties at center until Hughes returns. Once he does, assuming he does, one of the two will have to stay there.

Regardless, the Devils should be a win-now team in a why-not-us Eastern Conference playoff race. The Oilers got creative to acquire Frederic by using the Devils as a broker. The Devils retained $575,000 of Frederic's $2.3 million cap charge and got unsigned forward prospect Shane Lachance. It's a good bit of business from New Jersey because it got a prospect it likes while doing a solid for Edmonton and Boston. The Devils might have to get creative, but it's absolutely where they should be looking, especially now that there's uncertainty about Hughes' immediate future.

What do you think the Stars will do with Jamie Benn? I believe he's an UFA after the season. -- @im _ that _ dude20

You're correct. Benn, the Stars captain, is in the last season of an eight-year, $76 million contract that carries a $9.5 million average annual value. Benn is 35 and he's been with the Stars since they picked him in the fifth round (No. 129) of the 2007 NHL Draft. He played his 1,173rd game with Dallas on Tuesday and has 38 points (15 goals, 23 assists) in 61 games this season. It's reasonable to think the Stars and Benn can agree on a two-year contract that shaves a significant amount off his current AAV, because he's clearly still a valuable player. The Stars also have to work on new contracts for Wyatt Johnston and Mavrik Bourque, each a pending restricted free agent. Matt Duchene is a pending UFA. So too are Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci and Evgenii Dadonov. The Stars are all in to win the Stanley Cup this season. Benn's future should be in Dallas, but it wouldn't be surprising if he let the dust settle around him in the offseason before coming to terms on a new contract with the Stars.

Please explain something to me. Since the Blackhawks' dramatic decline their rebuild seems to be taking forever because they seem to immediately trade away anyone that's doing well, i.e. Brandon Hagel. Most recently, Ryan Donato, who is gelling well, is on the block. What gives? -- @foxodinson.bsky.social

Big picture, the Chicago Blackhawks are in an obvious rebuild and they're trying to do it through the NHL Draft. It's 50-50 if they can make it work, but clearly the picks to them matter. They have nine in the 2025 NHL Draft, including two in the first round. They have 10 in 2026, three in the second round. They made 11 picks in 2022, three in the first round, getting Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar and Sam Rinzel. They also made 11 picks in 2023, including Connor Bedard at No. 1 and Oliver Moore at No. 19. Defenseman Artyom Levshunov was taken No. 2 in 2024. Picks are nice to have but the odds of hitting on even 50 percent of them aren't great. Chicago needs to start using some of those picks in trades to get better ASAP.

Regarding Hagel, hindsight shows us that they should have re-signed him. He was 23 when they traded him. Why? It doesn't look good so far. Hagel is playing like a star for the Tampa Bay Lightning and played for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh, the two players Chicago got in that trade March 18, 2022, are no longer with the team. The Blackhawks also got two conditional first-round picks. They took Moore in 2023. He is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. They moved up two spots in 2024 to take forward Sacha Boisvert, a freshman at the University of North Dakota. There's still time for that trade to work in Chicago's favor, but there is no guarantee that Moore and/or Boisvert turns into what Hagel has become in Tampa Bay. It's a better bet that they don't.

Along those lines, the Blackhawks probably should have kept defenseman Jake McCabe, but they traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 27, 2023, to get a 2025 first-round pick, among other assets, in return. McCabe, 31, is a legit top four defenseman. He's in the first season of a five-year, $22.5 million contract he signed Oct. 28, 2024. The Blackhawks would clearly be better with him.

Now that the Blackhawks are again near the bottom of the NHL standings, likely to again pick in the top three or four of the draft, it makes you wonder when this cycle of finishing last in the Central Division will end. It's noteworthy that Bedard will be coming to the end of his entry-level contract after next season. If the Blackhawks don't start to move in a better direction, Bedard could sour on them. That would be the worst thing. He's the franchise right now.

Is this the year the Jets have a real shot at hoisting the Cup? Any upgrades necessary to not flame out in the first round again? -- @littlesiggi.bsky.social

The Winnipeg Jets have to be careful. This is the year they have a legit chance at the Stanley Cup. We've said that before, but the Jets were never this good before this season. Do you want to mess with success?

You look at the lineup and the need or want should be a No. 2 center. They have Mark Scheifele, an obvious No. 1. Beyond Scheifele, the Jets are solid down the middle with Vladislav Namestnikov, Adam Lowry and Morgan Barron, but lacking compared to some of the other beasts in the Western Conference.

The Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The Golden Knights have Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl. The Stars have Roope Hintz, Matt Duchene and Johnston. So, yes, that's the obvious need or want, but making a trade to jam a No. 2 center into the lineup might not be the best move for a team that has been the most consistently good team in the NHL this season. Clearly the chemistry is good in Winnipeg. It's dangerous to screw around with that.

The better move for the Jets should just be to eye some depth both at forward and on defense, a player or two who won't upset the apple cart who will be available on an as-needed basis either because of injury or a drop-off in play from someone. No team can go on a long playoff run without depth. The Jets should be planning for a long run.