One For One

With the halfway point of the season in the rear view mirror NHL teams are now looking over their rosters and beginning to decide whether they need to add more pieces to make a playoff run or sell assets for draft picks. Today we saw a trade between two teams that are trying to stay in the playoff hunt as the Carolina Hurricanes sent Center Victor Rask to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Right Wing Nino Niederreiter. This appears to be a trade involving two players in need of a change of scenery as both players involved are under contract through the 2021-22 season.

From the perspective of the Wild this trade is a bit of a head scratcher. Minnesota only freed up $1,250,000 in cap space so clearly they didn’t make this move for the sake of relieving a financial burden. The Wild don’t necessarily need help at the position of center as they have Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal and Charlie Coyle playing the middle on their top three lines. Rask may have to play on the wing if he wants minutes in the top nine. Rask, 25 years old, has been struggling this season with just one goal through twenty six games but wasn’t playing with the best players the Hurricanes had to offer as they have a weak bottom six. Perhaps playing on a line with Staal or Zach Parise could help jumpstart Rask’s season.

Looking at things from the Hurricanes point of view this trade could be the the spark they needed. Rask didn’t necessarily fit into the long term plans for Carolina with Sebastian Aho emerging as their number one center and the team committed long term to the contract of Jordan Staal. Add in top center prospect Martin Nečas appearing to be ready to make the jump to full time NHL player soon there just wasn’t room for Rask. One of the main reasons the Canes haven’t been able to sustain success this season has been a lack of depth scoring outside of Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, and rookie Andrei Svechnikov and Niederreiter has the potential to provide some goals from the top six or possibly a third line.

Will Niederreiter provide enough of a spark to propel Carolina into a playoff spot? Or will this be the first of many moves to follow? The answer is uncertain but this trade certainly won’t be the last as many teams will begin looking to add to their rosters in hopes of hoisting the Stanley Cup in June.