Every summer there’s a few players who get traded to other teams in “change of scenery” deals.
The Edmonton Oilers took advantage of that last summer, picking up Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks for a 2025 fourth round pick. It’s paid off well for the Oilers, as the winger had a solid regular season with eight goals and 24 points, and has already chipped in a goal and six points in 12 playoff games.
But Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin identified five players heading into this summer who could use a change of scenery — potentially none more than Canucks centre Elias Pettersson.
Has any player in any market needed more of a fresh start in recent memory than Pettersson? Okay, maybe J.T. Miller did. But trading him didn’t seem to fix whatever was holding back Pettersson, whose 102-point season of 2022-23 seems like a lifetime ago. It feels like the pressure of a hockey-mad Canadian market has gotten to Pettersson, who has never seemed particularly comfortable with the attention. He’s still just 26 and, when healthy, brings a superstar-caliber set of tools. It wouldn’t be remotely surprising to see him become an elite player again, but it may not happen unless he changes addresses. Would a hockey trade involving Pettersson and B.C. native Barzal make sense?
New York Islanders centre Mat Barzal was another player Larkin had identified, hence the idea of a “hockey trade” surrounding the two.
There were other names on the list, too, in Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, Minnesota Wild centre Marco Rossi, and another middle-iceman in the Anaheim Ducks’ Trevor Zegras — with Larkin saying of the latter of the group “It feels like this deal should’ve happened a while ago.”
Other news and notes…
- The Chicago Blackhawks named Jeff Blashill as the team’s next head coach on Thursday. He returns to the head coaching ranks after spending the last three years as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Blashill spent six seasons between 2015-16 and 2021-22 as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, coaching them to a 204-261-72 record, and their lone playoff appearance coming in his first season with the team.
- The aforementioned Islanders are hard at work to replace some front office staff members with their former president of hockey operations and general manager Lou Lamoriello having been fired this spring. The team reportedly has been granted permission to speak with Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan in regards to a front office position.
