The March 8 NHL trade deadline looms large and we’re starting to see some movement on the trade front. The mammoth trade of Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes sent shockwaves through the league and could serve as the proverbial starting pistol for this year’s trade season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have a couple of players who are unrestricted free agents (UFA) after this season, and those players are often fodder for trades. The team’s pending UFA with the most value is undoubtedly their Russian defenseman Ivan Provorov. While it’s been reported that Provorov has an interest in re-signing in Columbus, and his younger brother has just committed to play hockey in the same city with Ohio State, it’s still possible he’s shipped out to a contender before the deadline.
Provorov is a legitimate top-four defenseman in the prime of his career at 28 years old. He comes with the high pedigree of a seventh-overall draft pick in 2015 and has a serious commitment to playing the defensive side of the puck. Throughout his time in Columbus and with the Philadelphia Flyers he’s consistently played 22-25 minutes per night and is remarkably durable, only having missed a handful of games through his first nine NHL seasons. He’s also got the fourth most blocked shots with 1,264 since he joined the league in 2016-17. All of this to say, Provorov would be an incredible asset to add to a contending team looking for defensive help down the stretch of a playoff run.
The other thing about Provorov is that he’s already playing on a retained cap hit of $4.72 million, so should Columbus cut that in half with more retention, a contender could add him for $2.3 million. It could be less with a third-party broker. Adding a legitimate top-four guy at that number would be possible for even the most cap-crunched contenders in the league. Columbus also has the most cap space in the NHL, so they should be able to add a big contract to help raise the value of the return package. If the Blue Jackets do opt to trade him instead of re-sign him, here are three teams that could use some defensive help.
Florida Panthers
The defending Stanley Cup champions fit the bill for being cap-crunched. As it sits, their cap space at the deadline is expected to be around $500,000. They also fit the bill as needing some help on their blue line. While their defense corps was not the…
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