We’re here to talk hockey, but what a “hold my beer” showing by the National Basketball Association on the weekend.
For the second straight Friday night, the NHL discourse was popping off over a huge swap, with J.T. Miller going to the Rangers seven days after Mikko Rantanen had been shipped from Colorado to Carolina. The Miller trade was one of three big hockey transactions on the weekend, but it all paled in comparison to the shocking Sunday-morning news (for many of us in the east), that the Dallas Mavericks had dealt Luca Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, seemingly without ever deciding to tell any other NBA franchises that the 25-year-old megastar could be had via trade.
I can’t claim to know a tonne about the NBA, but to put this in context for those who follow it less than I do, it would be the loose equivalent of the Minnesota Wild offering up Kirill Kaprizov — like Donic, a potential free agent in the summer of 2026 — to one team and one team only, then pulling the trigger on a deal that provides an underwhelming return.
And, still, that doesn’t do it justice because of the impact a single superstar of Donic’s calibre can have on an NBA game.
For good measure, the NBA saw another landscape-shifting move on Sunday that put talented point guard De’Aaron Fox on the San Antonia Spurs with the league’s next chosen one, Victor Wembanyama.
Hockey fans are unlikely to witness trades on that scale anytime soon, but — with all the wheeling and dealing happening in the sports world right now, not to mention Friday’s news that the NHL salary cap is going way up in coming years — it sure feels like anything is in play in the coming week.
With the start of the 4 Nations Face-Off hiatus hitting in seven days, there’s sort of a Trade Deadline Part 1 vibe to the market right now. The Canucks, after dealing Miller, swooped in and grabbed one of the top rental D-men on the market in former Penguin Marcus Pettersson. Then Dallas quietly went about its business by grabbing middle-six contributor Mikael Granlund and — from the always-scarce right-shot defenceman pool — Cody Ceci from San Jose.
With Pettersson now gone, and Ivan Provorov playing on a Blue Jackets team that presently holds a wild card spot, you wonder how things might shake out in what is now a pretty thin market for defencemen.
Could a team look at Seth Jones and try to shake him loose? You must get the player — who holds a full no-move clause — on board, plus offer Chicago sufficient prospect/player capital, to convince the Hawks to eat enough salary for three-plus seasons to make Jones sensible on your books.
If you can, you’ve landed a 6-foot-4, right shot defenceman who might thrive in a lesser role and doesn’t turn 31 until next October.
Is Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen a perfect player? Nope. But, again, he’s 30 years old, huge and shoots right. Is there a defence corps somewhere in the league where he makes sense on a reduced salary for the next couple years? Absolutely.
Trevor Zegras has quietly returned from injury and his name may be the only one that was in rumours longer than J.T. Miller’s was. Perhaps the Ducks finally throw in the towel on building his value back up, and find a package that works for them.
The Bruins beat the Rangers on Saturday, but it feels like we’re two bad Boston losses — like the 7-2 and 6-2 drubbings it took last week — away from a “Make your best Brad Marchand offer today” memo coming out of Massachusetts.
It’s not all going to happen. But, thrillingly, it’s harder and harder to rule any of it out.
-
-
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
Weekend Takeaways
• We don’t know how things will go for Zegras in Orange County, but Mason McTavish is certainly showing the most promise of his fledgling career right now. The third-overall pick in 2021 — who turned 22 last week — scored the goal that got Anaheim rolling in a 3-2 comeback win over Montreal on Sunday afternoon. McTavish now has seven goals in his past six outings and is suddenly a good bet to register well over 20 goals in year three with the Ducks.
• The Islanders finally lost on Sunday in Florida, as the Panthers halted New York’s winning streak at seven games. Still, it was a good weekend for the new Islanders defencemen, as the team earned that seventh victory over Tampa Bay on Saturday in a game where waiver pickup Adam Boqvist scored in his Isles debut, and Tony DeAngelo — who joined the squad as a free agent leaving the KHL in late January — netted the overtime winner for his first with the club. So far, so good on the blueline additions meant to blunt the blow for a team that’s fought through losing a couple very important defencemen in Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock.
The Week Ahead
• The Senators are in the lone Monday night game when they visit the Preds in Nashville. Ottawa then has a monster two-game set in Tampa Bay on Tuesday and Thursday, as those teams fight for the upper hand in the battle for third place in the Atlantic.
• Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci should make their Stars debuts Tuesday night in Anaheim. The pair will see their old friends in San Jose on Saturday.
• The Canadiens are in San Jose on Tuesday, as two of the leading Calder Trophy candidates — Montreal’s Lane Hutson and the Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini — go head-to-head in a tasty rookie showdown.
• J.T. Miller scored two goals in his first game back with the Rangers on Saturday in Boston, then made it a four-point weekend with two helpers in a huge win at Madison Square Garden over Vegas on Sunday. (By the way, Jonathan Quick became the first-ever American goalie with 400 career victories in that triumph). Miller and the Blueshirts have another huge, Original Six tilt with Boston on Wednesday in New York.
• This weekend marks the last NHL action we’ll see until Feb. 22 thanks to the 4 Nations Face-Off. For the second straight Saturday, the Leafs — who won in Edmonton on Saturday — will be out west, wrapping up a road trip with a tilt in Vancouver. The Canadiens, meanwhile, will have their traditional back-to-back Super Bowl Weekend matinees. The Devils are in town on Saturday, and Tampa visiting on Sunday for a 1 p.m. ET tilt is one of just two games on the sked that day. It will be the final contest before the Super Bowl on Sunday night and the 4 Nations Face-Off action of next week.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (37-14-3) The Jets went into Washington on Saturday night and beat the only team in the NHL with a better points percentage than their own by a 5-4 margin in overtime. Winnipeg has won six straight games and is averaging 4.7 goals-per-game during the run.
2. Edmonton Oilers (32-16-4) After their comeback bid versus the Leafs came up short on Saturday, the Oilers will now hit the road and play 11 of their next 15 away from Northern Alberta.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (31-19-2) John Tavares (primary assist on the game’s first goal) and Matthew Knies (power-play marker in the first period) sure made an immediate impact on the Leafs in their return to the top two lines in Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Oilers.
4. Ottawa Senators (28-20-4) Drake Batherson’s 1-2-3 night in Saturday’s 6-0 laugher over the Wild had to feel good. The Sens winger had previously posted just two goals and eight points in his previous 23 outings.
5. Calgary Flames (26-19-7) Morgan Frost’s first goal as a Flame was an absolute beauty and opened the scoring in what turned out to be a huge 3-2 road win in Seattle on Sunday night.
6. Vancouver Canucks (23-18-11) One game, one goal for Filip Chytil in Vancouver. The tally tied the contest with Detroit halfway through the third period and ensured the Canucks at least picked up a single point in the 3-2 OTL.
7. Montreal Canadiens (24-23-5) The Canadiens have four games left before the 4 Nations Face-Off break and it’s already now-or-never time if they want to stay in the playoff chase. After giving up a 2-0 first-period lead in Anaheim on Sunday, the Habs have lost five straight contests.
