Realistic Trade Targets for 6 of the NHL's Top Contenders (2024)

The NHL holiday roster freeze lifted this week, meaning teams in need of help can start making moves again to fill out their rosters.

There will be several contenders looking to add to their team between now and the trade deadline to address their biggest weaknesses. We're going to take an updated look at a handful of the biggest contenders most in need of a move and realistic players they should target.

Take a look and share your thoughts in the comments section of the app.

The New York Rangers have been one of the NHL's best teams this season and despite having a new head coach -- Peter Laviolette -- are winning with the same recipe from the past few seasons.

Their power play is amazing. Their top line is strong. Their goaltending covers a lot of defensive flaws. That structure can lead a team pretty far, especially if all of those items are clicking at the same time. But if even one of them slows down, it can bring the whole thing to a screeching halt.

The one thing the Rangers have consistently lacked over the past three years has been more 5-on-5 production and scoring depth. Two years in a row now they have had to make bold trade deadline moves to help fix it. They are in a similar position again this season as they are under 50 percent shares in expected goals and goals scored percentage during 5-on-5 play. They should turn to a former prospect -- Anthony Duclair -- to help fix it.

Duclair would bring speed, skill and offense to their right side and is playing on a team in San Jose that is going to be a huge seller in the coming months. He has scored at a 20-goal pace per 82 games for the past few years and is on that pace again this season with seven goals in his first 31 games with the Sharks. The Rangers still have not seen their young forwards take a big step forward and that has created some big holes in their lineup. Duclair would be a strong fit on the right side at a price that would probably be nothing more than a second or third-round draft pick.

The New Jersey Devils have every possible ingredient you could want a Stanley Cup contender to have, especially when they're healthy.

They have a franchise player and superstar scorer in Jack Hughes, great complementary pieces in Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton, and they should be one of the best teams in the NHL.

At times, they play like it.

But the one thing consistently holding them back is a goaltending duo of Akira Schmidt and Vitek Vanecek that has been one of the least productive duos in the league, with neither goalie topping an .890 save percentage entering the weekend.

That has taken them from one of the league's best records to an underwhelming middle-of-the-pack mark that is making them look like a substantial disappointment. But when healthy there is nothing at all disappointing about the way this roster plays. Their underlying 5-on-5 numbers in terms of expected goals and scoring chances are all among the top 10 in the league and right where they should be among Stanley Cup contenders.

They're just not getting saves. They need a goalie upgrade, and they need one fast.

Montreal has an overflow of goalies on its roster, and Jake Allen looks to be the odd man out.

Allen might not be a superstar, but he should come at a cheap price (maybe a mid-round pick) and his .904 save percentage would be a huge upgrade over what the Devils currently have. They don't need somebody to steal games for them. They just need competent, league average goaltending to get back to the top of the league. Allen can give them that.

The Avalanche entered the offseason desperately needing to address their depth, and especially at second-linne center. They attempted to address that with Ryan Johansson and it simply hasn't worked out as planned.

He has scored 10 goals, but his playmaking and overall impact have been relatively unimpressive and not close to what a Stanley Cup contender needs in that spot.

Enter Calgary's Elias Lindholm.

Lindholm's overall point production isn't markedly better than Johansen's this season, but he is a top-line talent with excellent playmaking skills and two-way play that almost certainly needs a change of scenery. Lindholm would significantly add to Colorado's all-around play and give them a potentially dynamic 1-2 punch down the middle along with Nathan MacKinnon.

The Avalanche's Stanley Cup window is still wide open and they still have a talented core. They need better goaltending this season, but Alexander Georgiev should be better and they might not be in the market for an upgrade there.

Center is a spot where they desperately need an upgrade and there is not a better potential option available than Lindholm.

He has been a point-per-game player as recently as two years ago and was a 64-point scorer a year ago. Put him on a lineup as talented as the Avalanche, and in that system, and he can easily get back to that level.

This would require the Penguins to become sellers and make the type of aggressive rebuilding move they haven't made in more than 20 years. It would also be the type of move they have shown absolutely zero interest in making in recent years, even as their success has dried up.

But given the way the Penguins have struggled early on, as well as Guentzel's status as a pending unrestricted free agent after this season, there is at least a chance that Guentzel could find himself on the trade market before March.

If the Penguins went this direction it would be a clear sign they're sending up the white flag for the remainder of the Sidney Crosby era, but if they do not play their way back into a playoff position sometime soon they may have to make that tough decision. They can't afford to lose Guentzel for anything after this season while also not making the playoffs this season.

If Guentzel were to hit the open market Vegas would almost certainly be in play for him.

Not only do the Golden Knights have a devastating lack of depth on the left side of their lineup, but they haven't ignored a star player who has been available for trade or free agency.

Putting Guentzel, one of the league's best goal-scorers and a constant threat for 40 goals, on the Golden Knights' top line alongside Jack Eichel would make an already great team even better, and give the reigning Stanley Cup champions a very realistic chance to repeat.

The Bruins looked to be in a world of trouble down the middle this season following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, but Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha have done a great job filling in and exceeding expectations.

The Bruins might prefer to add a top-line center, but their lack of trade assets, as well as the lack of premium centers on the market, is going to make that a challenge.

Instead, they might have to go for depth. And Johnson would be a really strong depth for them to add.

He could slide into a third-line role behind Coyle and Zacha and not only bring solid offense from the bottom nine, he also has a ton of big-game experience and Stanley Cup pedigree from his team with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Chicago Blackhawks will be in a seller mode as the trade deadline approaches, and Johnson will be one of their top trade chips. He is not the top-six scorer he was during his peak with the Lightning, but if the Bruins could add somebody like him as a third-line option it would give them some pretty respectable depth down the middle.

Johnson also has the positional flexibility to play in the middle and on the wing, as well as the potential to play up and down the lineup.

This might take a little creativity to make the money work under the salary cap, especially given how much money John Gibson still has remaining on his contract (three more full seasons at $6.4 million per season against the salary cap per year) but this could be a good fit for both teams.

For one, Edmonton has some contracts it can ship back to Anaheim to make the money work (like Jack Campbell).

It could also be a great opportunity for Gibson to get his career back on track playing behind a good team.

His numbers have cratered in recent years, and for a while, it looked like he might be done as a productive goalie. But playing behind a bad team and a bad defense for the past few years can certainly take its toll on a goalie. And that could certainly be the case for Gibson. He has rebounded quite a bit this season and is carrying a very respectable .908 save percentage into the weekend and could be a difference-maker on a team like Edmonton.

The Oilers are a lot like the Devils in that they have every possible ingredient you could want on a roster, while also posting dominant possession numbers.

They are simply getting crushed by goaltending and have been all season. That is the single biggest factor holding them back. Give them above league averaging goaltending and a lot of their supposed flaws and problems go away pretty rapidly.