NHL Power Rankings: Offseason trade candidates

In this week’s NHL Power Rankings we turn our attention to the potential summer trade market and the players who could be on the move.

The Chicago Blackhawks figure to be big sellers again as they try to overhaul their roster, but just how bold they are willing to be remains to be seen. The Montreal Canadiens could find themselves in a similar situation as they not only try to rebuild following a bitterly disappointing season, but try to work their way through a salary cap crunch.

Speaking of salary cap crunches, no team is feeling that more than the Minnesota Wild as they have more than $12 million in empty cap space complicating their attempts to re-sign forward Kevin Fiala.

We look at those situations and more in this week’s rankings.

1. Alex DeBrincat, Chicago Blackhawks. DeBrincat is one of the NHL’s best goal scorers, but he is going to be due a major extension after this season and the Blackhawks seemed destined to stink for at least the next two-three years. Is he somebody you rebuild your entire organization around or do you cash in for a big return? Keep in mind, the return here is probably not going to be as massive as you expect. It never is.

2. Kevin Fiala, Minnesota Wild. Ideally the Wild would never even considering trading Fiala. He is one of their best players, still in the prime of his career, and Minnesota should intend to be contenders. But their salary cap situation is a mess after the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts, while Fiala is due for a significant raise as a restricted free agent. Every team that needs a top-line scorer should be calling Bill Guerin right now.

3. Chicago’s other core players. Basically, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Yeah, they were franchise players here for more than a