Trade Bait out west

Trade Bait out west

Ahh November, the second full month of hockey when everyone’s beginning to shake the dust off and come into their true 2015-16 form. It’s when teams are beginning to either warm up or fizzle out, when the teams you expect to be in first are and those that have started hot can really prove themselves. it’s when your Saturday fantasy teams are so packed that you definitely have to bench a guy who’s playing tonight — and flip out when they score some goals.

Apparently, it’s also the time that the rumor mill gets started and hot takes heat up. Last week, trade rumors came about for two forwards from the West, one of whom made Rangers twitter a complete nut house and pretty unbearable in general. Yes, more unbearable than usual.

Sharks forward (and former captain until 2009, then former alternate before management had a mental breakdown and re-associated the leadership group) Patrick Marleau recently announced that he would waive his no-trade clause for LA, ANA or NYR. Of course, it would make no sense for the Sharks to send their aging-but-still-effective player to a team in their division, so the Rangers would make the most sense for a trade.

Except they wouldn’t, because why would the Rangers trade for a forward right now? I can understand beat writers and sports journalists to feel the need to write a story about this; the season is long, material sometimes runs dry, especially when there’s a gap between games. As fans, though, I expect more. Why would management trade for talent right now when regular players are being benched for space? Additionally, why would a team that seems interested in their young talent (think Oscar Lindberg, Jesper Fast, heck, even giving Dylan McIlrath regular games, and Brady Skjei is undoubtedly on the horizon) trade for a 36-year-old? The last time the Rangers got an older Shark, everyone had a conniption. Even if he did win the game yesterday.

Certain outlets say that Montreal and Chicago are interested, which is swell and all, however his no-trade clause isn’t sympathetic to those teams. My bold prediction is that he’ll remain a Shark, despite the woes that team is dealing with.

Huge trade rumor number two belongs to Avs center Matt Duchene, for whom I would drive to Colorado and personally drive back to New York. The rumor mills started on this one in a “leak” that colorful Avalanche coach Patrick Roy is unamused with 24-year-old Duchene apparently being productive and the two are having some trouble. A disconnect is somewhere, but it’s not clear (to me, at least) where or why.

Duchene, who racked up 55 and 70 points in each of the last two seasons, has been a bright spot in an often dim Colorado team. The Avs are dead last in the Central, which is always a brutal division to be fighting in. Duchene has taken a hometown discount and seems like a loyal soldier to Roy, so for his name to be floating around is quite confusing. Perhaps it was brought up to light a fire under his butt? He has been scoring goals, but was never particularly cold this year. With 14 points already this year, I would welcome him with open arms.

I’m not sure we’ll see any big moves for quite some time, with the main source of amusement being John Tortorella making the Blue Jackets do push-ups for blowing a drill in practice, but with some teams floundering (I see you Jackets, Pens, Canes..), you really never know.

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