NHL Rumor Roundup: Wallstedt And Tippett Resurface In Trade Buzz, Kings Could Shop Foegele
The Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia Flyers must decide if they'll use Jesper Wallstedt and Owen Tippett as trade chips, while a surplus of forwards could force the Los Angeles Kings to move Warren Foegele.
Video Transcript
I'm Lyle Richardson of the Hockey News.
The Minnesota Wild have already made a big splash in this season's trade market when they acquired Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks back in December, and that's raised the expectation that General Manager Bill Guerin could have another big move up his sleeve before the March sixth trade deadline.
So that's one of the topics in today's NHL Rumor Roundup column.
It's believed that Guerin is, looking at acquiring a scoring forward, preferably a center, and that has, linked the, Wild to such notables as Vincent Trocheck of the New York Rangers and Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues.
Now, several weeks ago, Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic suggested that Jesper Wallstedt be used as a trade chip for the Wild to address that need for a center.
Now, Wallstedt is a twenty-three-year-old goaltender who currently leads all rookie netminders this season in the NHL, and he's formed a solid tandem along with starter Filip Gustavsson for the Wild.
However, Gustavsson is on a long-term contract, which is why Russo and Smith believe that he would be a good, trade candidate in order to address that need for a center.
Another reason why they believe that Wallstedt should be used is that the Wild don't have very many trade chips left, as they already gave up, quite a few in the return to bring in Quinn Hughes.
And they also note that the asking prices for, Trocheck and Thomas could be quite high.
Nevertheless, though, they do caution that the Wild should be careful in using Wallstedt as a trade candidate and believe they should only move him if he will indeed fetch a first-line center.
Now, Guerin is preaching patience in, looking at addressing that need for a center, and that means that if he doesn't find what he's looking for at the trade deadline, he could be content to wait until the off-season for better offers to appear.
