NHL Trade Buzz: V. Desharnais traded to Sharks by Penguins for 2028 pick
Boeser's time with Canucks could be coming to end
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Pittsburgh Penguins
Vincent Desharnais was traded to the San Jose Sharks by the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fifth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.
The 28-year-old defenseman had three points, all assists, in 34 games for the Vancouver Canucks before he was traded to Pittsburgh with Danton Heinen, Melvin Fernstrom and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor on Feb. 1. He had no points in 10 games for the Penguins this season.
He has 19 points (one goal, 18 assists) in 158 career NHL games, with the Edmonton Oilers, Canucks and Penguins.
Selected by Edmonton with in the seventh round (No. 183) of the 2016 NHL Draft, Desharnais had an NHL career high 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) for the 2023-24 Oilers.
Vancouver Canucks
Brock Boeser is facing the possibility that he could be playing his final game for the Canucks against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET; SNP, KCOP-13, Victory+).
"I'm trying not to really think about that," Boeser said after the morning skate Wednesday. "I honestly have no idea what's going to happen, so I'm really just trying to focus on the game tonight. Obviously, it might be a little difficult, but I'm going to do the best I can to really dial it in and be prepared to go out there and work hard and continue to be a leader and try and help our team win a hockey game."
Boeser is a pending unrestricted free agent after the season and there have been reports that the two sides have been unable to come to terms on a new contract.
"Anytime you have uncertainty, it's scary and the unknown is scary," Boeser said. "So it's obviously a little bit of stress involved in that. It's not a great situation, but like I said, I'm really trying to just focus on tonight and I'm still here, I'm still on the Canucks and that's my main worry right now."
The Canucks are two points back of the Calgary Flames for the second wild card in the Western Conference. Their best player, defenseman Quinn Hughes, will not play against the Ducks on Wednesday because of a lower-body injury that coach Rick Tocchet called day to day.
Boeser, who was drafted by the Canucks in 2015, has played 532 games for them over nine seasons. He has 36 points (18 goals, 18 assists) in 53 games this season.
"It's definitely been the toughest I've dealt with," Boeser said. "But I understand how important of a game it is tonight and we have a lot to play for, and I'm still here, so I'm going to act like I'm still here and really just take this afternoon to dial in for tonight and bring the best I can bring."
Detroit Red Wings
Will the Red Wings add prior to the Trade Deadline?
First, coach Todd McLellan said, they need to win with what they have.
The Red Wings certainly have made a push, getting their team in the mix for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They are tied with the New York Rangers for the second wild card but failed to pick up any points in a 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. It was their third straight loss and fifth in seventh games (2-4-1).
"I know that [general manager Steve Yzerman] believes in this group and that he wants to do whatever he can to help this group," McLellan said. "But the players that put the jerseys on have to get the job done. We aren't sitting in the coaches' room; the players shouldn't be sitting in the locker room, thinking that the cavalry is coming. They've clearly shown to each other that they have the ability to win some games and string things out. A lot of things have to go right -- they have to play well. But we have a lot of tools in that locker room right now."
Boston Bruins
Though the trade of forward Trent Frederic to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday could have been a wake-up call for the Bruins, it didn't translate to their play against the Nashville Predators, in a 6-3 loss at TD Garden.
The Bruins (28-27-8) instead failed to make up ground against an opponent that has the third-worst record in the NHL.
"You do your best to block those kind of things out," forward Morgan Geekie said of the Frederic trade. "But I've been here for a couple years and got to know 'Fred' really well. Guys have been here much longer and knew Fred when he was drafted. He's a great person and it's always tough when that happens. But you see it's a business. I think a lot of people forget we're human too and it's tough to see one of your good friends go. It definitely affected us, I would say, a little bit."
Geekie is another player who has trade potential. The forward can be a restricted free agent at the end of what has been a second-straight career season for him. He has 33 points (20 goals, 13 assists). In his past 32 games, Geekie has 24 points (16 goals, eight assists).
"I think when you're in it, you're very anxious for it to happen and then when something happens, you kind of dread it for the next couple of days," Geekie said. "Everybody knows that this time of year is tough for everybody. It's not fun when you're sellers and a little more fun when you're buyers. It's just something you try to drown out."
Columbus Blue Jackets
General manager Don Waddell reiterated Wednesday that the Blue Jackets are "not in a position to trade first-round picks for rental players or anything like that," but he also said the team could add ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday.
"We're certainly making calls, taking calls," he said.
The Blue Jackets (30-23-8), who lost 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, are two points ahead of the New York Rangers for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and four points behind the New Jersey Devils for third in the Metropolitan Division.
"More interested in hockey deals with maybe players that have term left on their contracts," Waddell said. "We're exploring as many of those as we can. We've got another 48 hours, or 53 hours, or whatever it is to try to come up with something that we feel we feel good about."
Waddell emphasized that, given the chemistry that the Blue Jackets have in their locker room and considering what they have all have gone through following the death of forward Johnny Gaudreau on Aug. 29, he would be careful to ensure that no additions would upset that balance.
"We have lots of assets," Waddell said. "It's a little different this year than normal. If I rip a guy out of this locker room right now that's an asset that's playing a role right now, I think that's pretty devastating to our team. I think that's the wrong message from my end. It's the wrong message to our fans, the coaches and the players."
New York Islanders
Brock Nelson's future with the Islanders is unclear, with the NHL Trade Deadline approaching and his contract expiring after this season.
But when asked if he took in the scene on Tuesday after what could possibly have been his last game with the Islanders, he said, "I don't think I did that."
"I think it was still just a game," Nelson said. "I truly mean that and I know that there's a lot more that goes into it and a lot of different things going on in terms of noise and scenarios and what not."
Nelson, who has played all 901 of his career games for New York, is in the final year of a six-year contract. He has 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 61 games this season and had a goal and an assist on Tuesday in a 3-2 win against the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets.
"I know I'm still playing at a high level and I'm just worried about trying to help the team here and I wasn't thinking too sentimental in terms of anything here and it was just another game," Nelson said. "I had my kids here, they love coming. They came, saw some warmups. They loved it and I tried to just go about it like I have every other game."
The win put the Islanders (28-26-7) five points back of the New York Rangers for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with four teams ahead of them.
"I have no idea what's going to happen at this moment," Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. "It's been a little bit of a roller coaster. We win some, we lose some. There's days you want to buy. There's days you want to sell. But it's up to (general manager) Lou (Lamoriello) to decide whatever he feels is the right decision for the franchise."
NHL.com independent correspondents Stefen Rosner, Craig Merz and Kevin Woodley contributed to this report
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning are starting to feel like a team on a mission. They've won nine of their past 10 games and getting themselves very much into the conversation as a Stanley Cup contender.
To that end, they're getting the band back together, acquiring Yanni Gourde in a three-team trade with the Seattle Kraken and Detroit Red Wings. The 33-year-old forward played his first six NHL seasons with the Lightning and helped them win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and '21 before he was taken by the Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
Gourde has 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) in 36 games this season. Joining him in Tampa Bay is Oliver Bjorkstrand, a 29-year-old forward.
The Lightning (36-21-4) are just three points back of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division after a 6-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. They were already in great shape to make another run this season, sitting second in the NHL with 3.56 goals per game behind the Washington Capitals (3.59). They are now far deeper.
The Lightning gave up two first-round picks, in the 2026 and 2027 NHL Draft, so they will be paying for this move later. But for a team that is all in now -- and apparently has a chance to win the Cup -- it appears to be worth it.
