NHL Trade Deadline Primer: Is there a surprise trade to be made this year?

The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is Monday, March 21 at 3 p.m. ET. As we get closer to the deadline we will take a look at some individual players who could be on the move. We continue today with some players that you might not be expecting to move but could if the right offer presents itself, similar to what we saw a year ago with the Anthony Mantha for Jakub Vrana trade.

Every year there are typically three types of trades that happen at the NHL Trade Deadline. The most common of these trades is the rental, where a non-playoff team that has given up on the season trades a pending unrestricted free agent to a playoff team to help fill an area of weakness for whatever they can get. This is usually what we see.

The second type of trade involves the rebuilding team that deals a player with term on their contract to really kickstart their rebuild, hoping a team that wants to get multiple playoff runs out of that player will pay a premium price.

Then there is the “hockey trade.” This is is the least common trade involving players under contract, maybe even players on playoff teams or playoff hopeful teams. Maybe somebody has a glut at one position and is thin at another and they find a team that complements that. Maybe a team outside the playoffs has hopes of competing next season and jumps at a opportunity. It is players you did not expect to be traded.

The Anthony Mantha-for-Jakub Vrana trade a year ago fits the latter two categories quite well.

Is there anybody that could be involved in such a deal this season?

Travis Sanheim, Philadelphia Flyers. Honestly it is really difficult to understand what, exactly the Flyers are doing here. The team is lousy, is probably going to trade Claude Giroux after his 1,000th game on Thursday,