Welcome to the Thursday ramblings. This week I am going to go over the guaranteed playoff teams’ prospects they may move in a deal to improve the Stanley Cup chances.

That is sure a mouthful to get across. The contenders I will go over are: Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston, Tamp Bay, St. Louis, and Colorado. Why did I pick those and not others, here is my reasoning:

• Colorado is only down in the standings (to me) because of the injuries in the middle of the season
• Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston, Tamp Bay, and St. Louis are all well up in the divisions and look like contenders
• No one from the Pacific is in here because the division is terrible and Vegas really should be leading it
• Toronto really should be in here but the Babcock start really impacted them as they are currently fighting for the playoffs

You better believe I did not forget my #GoodTweet of the week

{source} <blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Holtz didn't score on these three shots. Drop him down your draft boards.<br>He was also invisible in the top prospects game this month! <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/FutureBust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#FutureBust</a> <a href=”https://t.co/loDO4bqGRE”>https://t.co/loDO4bqGRE</a></p>&mdash; Pat Quinn (not that one) (@FHPQuinn) <a href=”https://twitter.com/FHPQuinn/status/1222969916275359744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 30, 2020</a></blockquote>{/source}

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No real top prospects plus high picks get moved for rentals now-a-days, it is either one or the other usually. I am just going to add notes on some of the individuals. This is all my opinion of course

Also get ready to be disappointed on trade deadline day, so do not hype yourself up. I have learned many a sick day off from work.

Washington

Untouchables:

• Connor McMichael – Zero chance he is moved for anything
• Alexander Alexeyev
• Martin Fehérváry
• Alexei Protas
• Brett Leason – He is having a bad season but a lot of that is due to him getting barely any opportunity in the AHL
• The goalies – Samsonov is staying long term, the team wants to see what they have with Vanecek, and Gibson has faired very well with Harvard this season

Likely to be moved if a deal were to happen:

• Travis Boyd – Barely in the line up but he is an NHLer he just needs on opportunity
• Lucas Johansen – Seems more and more like he and the Capitals are parting ways
• Connor Hobbs – Hurt again, needs a fresh start
• Christian Djoos – No idea why he was not claimed on waivers but maybe teams want to exchange contracts
• Axel Jonsson-Fjallby – Only if a bigger fish is available as he will be a future bottom-six top penalty killer type

Pittsburgh

Untouchables:

• Probably none because the Pens trade all prospects
• Calen Addison – Great World Junior performance likely keeps him in the Penguins books
• Sam Lafferty – Pens should want to keep him for a bottom six for a long time
• Teddy Blueger (see above)
• The young three defensemen (Marino, Riikola and “Anaheim won the trade” Pettersson)

Likely to be moved if a deal were to happen:

• Kasper Bjorkqvist – Out for the rest of the 2019-2020 season due to knee surgery so it would be a risk
• Samuel Poulin – If the Pens are to land a top six forward, they will likely give up Poulin
• Filip Hallander
• Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Acquired in the Kessel deal he has just been okay in his first AHL season

Boston

Untouchables:

• Anders Bjork – I see the Bruins holding on to him over moving him as he is a good middle-six scoring winger
• John Beecher – Former first round pick destined for the third/fourth line would not fetch a lot anyway
• Urho Vaakanainen
• Trent Frederic – see Beecher
• Peter Cehlarik – Very underrated player
• Karson Kuhlman – Already used as the line two winger and coach Cassidy is a fan
• Jack Studnicka

Likely to be moved if a deal were to happen:

• Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson – A team would be smart to get him out of Boston
• Pavel Shen – Needs a few AHL seasons to develop
• Zach Senyshyn – Really needs a fresh start on a new team where they are not reminded he went before many good NHLers
• Jakub Lauko
• Alexander Khokhlachev – The Bruins could trade his rights as another team with more opportunity to convince him to come to North America
• Jakub Zboril – See Senyshyn above

Tamp Bay

Untouchables:

• Alexander Volkov – I am sure the Bolts want the big Russian winger on the team sooner than later
• Nolan Foote – Tampa would keep both of the recent first round Foote selections unless someone knocked the teams socks off
• Cal Foote
• Alex Barré-Boulet – The underrated free agent is biding his time until he comes to the NHL to produce

Likely to be moved if a deal were to happen:

• Boris Katchouk – Slowly progressing in the AHL
• Taylor Raddysh – Also progressing in the AHL but is easily a nice trade chip for a cheap rental as he may never become an NHLer

St. Louis

Untouchables:

• Ville Husso – Recent contract signed with two years of one way pay
• Niko Mikkola – Recent contract signed with two years of one way pay
• Sammy Blais
• Andreas Borgman – Acquired from the Leafs and I think the Blues really like him
• Nikita Alexandrov – Recently drafted
• Joel Hofer – Recent World Junior play

Likely to be moved if a deal were to happen:

• Jordan Kyrou – Would need to be a big fish for the Blues but there is also little reason to have him waste his potential on the third or fourth line
• Klim Kostin – The skill is there but the opportunity in St. Louis is not
• Alexei Toropchenko – A team would bite for the big winger
• Mackenzie MacEachern – Needs a team to give him an opportunity for a bottom six spot more consistently than the Blues
• Scott Perunovich

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Thanks for reading, next week I will go over some likely contenders making trades, unless I somehow forget and decide some other topic is better.

Follow my twitter: @FHPQuinn