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sports Monday 27 February 2023
Beyond Kane, much uncertainty ahead of NHL trade deadline

By STEPHEN WHYNO es by the deadline. want to be a part of good
AP Hockey Writer "I can see the marketplace hockey teams who can
The NHL's top contenders taking towards the end win," Mikkola said. "The
did not wait until the last of the week to sort out for whole team is good, and
minute to do their shopping some teams," said Hart we can go deep. We all
before the trade deadline. Levine of PuckPedia, a know that."
League-leading Boston website that tracks the sal- The Maple Leafs want to
got bigger and tougher by ary cap and player move- go deep, but they haven't
adding Dmitry Orlov and ment. won a playoff series since
Garnet Hathaway. Toronto WHAT ALREADY HAS HAP- 2004 — before the NHL
got defensive by trading PENED had a salary cap. Acquir-
for Ryan O'Reilly. The Rang- The Islanders made their ing O'Reilly, a playoff MVP
ers answered their New splash in late January, in 2019 when the Blues won
York-rival Islanders' move getting Horvat, a 30-goal the Stanley Cup, and tough
for Bo Horvat by acquiring scorer, from Vancouver depth forward Noel Acciari Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (88) skates during
Vladimir Tarasenko — and and signing him to an sets them up better for that before an NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils,
they're not done yet. eight-year extension. The pursuit, if their goaltending Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, in Newark, N.J.
A handful of big moves al- Rangers, after the All-Star holds up. Associated Press
ready have been made break in early February, got WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN were going to happen ... MVP in 2015-16 can choose
around the league, includ- Tarasenko and big defen- The worst-kept secret in the that was a team that I was where he wants to go.
ing a couple on Sunday, seman Niko Mikkola from sport is Kane's connection definitely looking at." Rangers GM Chris Drury
and many more are ex- St. Louis to start loading up to the Rangers. Not much of a poker face, took care of his end of the
pected before the trade to try to repeat or improve After New York got Tarasen- but Kane has a full no- money aspect Saturday
deadline Friday at 3 p.m. on their trip to the Eastern ko, thinking the price for movement clause, mean- by trading Vitali Kravtsov
Eastern. Patrick Kane go- Conference final. Meier or Kane would be too ing the three-time Cup to Vancouver and waiving
ing from Chicago to the "You want to win, and you high, Kane said: "If things champion who was league Jake Leschyshyn.q
Rangers is the most highly
anticipated deal on the
docket, and yet plenty of
uncertainty remains about
what else will shake out.
"I am certainly not going to
predict where the market
goes next," Bruins general
manager Don Sweeney
said last week after making
what could be his first big
trade or his only big one.
"That's for all teams, all 32
teams, to continue to dis-
cuss and those discussions
will continue."
Discussions led San Jose to
trade winger Timo Meier to
New Jersey, a person with
knowledge of the situation
told The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity
because the deal had not
been announced. Oth-
er talks culminated with
St. Louis sending forward
Ivan Barbashev to Vegas
for 20-year-old prospect
Zach Dean and Dallas get-
ting 20-goal-scorer Evgenii
Dadnov from Montreal for
Denis Gurianov.
More are ongoing around
Kane, San Jose's Erik Karls-
son, Arizona's Jakob Chy-
chrun, Philadelphia's
James van Riemsdyk and
Washington's handful of
pending free agents after
the perennially contending
Capitals went from buyers
to sellers.
Prices have been high on a
lot of players, most notably
Chychrun, who is the top
player left to change plac-