NHL Rumors: Prices Remain High For Rentals on Trade Market

The Prices on the Trade Market Remain High As Deadline Approaches

Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Carter Hutton on the Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play segment and stated the prices for rental players remain high as it will cost teams at least a first-round pick.

** NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

Steve Kouleas: “Is there any way the high-end players that we’ve been talking about won’t be moved? Like, will the price come down? Do you believe that teams will hold firm for their first-round picks, etc? And are we still at first-round picks for some of the big-name players on top of your trade watch list board?”

Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, I mean look, if, if the prices, the further this goes; eventually the market will start to fluctuate a little bit in one way or the other. Depending on if there’s added interest, excessive interest, or interest starts to dwindle based on the price. So obviously, based on the ebbs and flows of the market, that’ll dictate how the price is going to go closer to deadline day.

Do I expect the first-round pick to be dished out for a guy like Hanifin as part of the package? I do—same for Guentzel and a couple of other pieces that are there. Calgary would like a first-round pick in a deal for Chris Tanev. We’ll see if they get that. They’re gonna hold firm on that until you know as far as they feel they can go without having to potentially drop the price.

The same with Sean Walker in Philadelphia. You know, Sean Walker is a player they liked. They haven’t officially started contract negotiations with him yet they have with Seeler a little bit. I don’t believe they liked the initial number that was presented by Seeler’s camp on an extension, so they’re gonna kind of still go back and forth on that and try to try to figure things out.

And there are discussions that there are teams that, a couple of teams anyway, are interested in both Walker and Seeler. We’ll see kind of where that goes. I think Dallas is one. I think Edmonton is another team that’s kind of poking around there. They also have interest in Scott Laughton. But for a guy like Walker, the price is a first-round pick.

And teams are going to look to say, Well, can we get both? And maybe we’ll include a first? If not, if we just want Walker, are we going to wait to see if that price drops? For a team like Philly in the position they’re in, they’re not going to move out these guys unless they get the prices they’re looking for because they’re still in that race.

And plus, it’s also a decent message to the rest of the guys to hold firm. If they get the price, I think they’ll pull the trigger. But that’s outside of that scenario; Calgary is willing to move there, guys. Anaheim’s willing to move there, guys. And so on and so on.”