Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm is the hottest name in NHL trade rumors right now. He is No. 1 on both TSN’s Trade Bait board and The Athletic’s Trade Board.
It’s easy to see why. The 30-year-old left shot is a stellar two-way defenseman who could fit into and improve any team’s top four on the blue line. He’s also signed through next season with a team-friendly $3.75 million cap hit.
The Bruins are among the many teams who have been rumored to be interested. While a scoring wing seems like more of a need for Boston, The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa recently wrote that the team’s priority remains “an all-around left-shot defenseman who can move pucks.”
Agree or disagree with the approach (I would personally put the scoring wing first), Shinzawa isn’t pulling that out of thin air. He knows what he’s talking about.
Ekholm certainly fits that bill. In fact, he fits it better than any other player who’s probably going to be available.
So, what would it take for the Bruins to get him? We’re starting to get an idea. Here is what Pierre LeBrun said on TSN’s latest “Insider Trading” segment on Tuesday.
“He doesn’t come cheap,” LeBrun said of Ekholm. “According to people around the league that I’ve talked to the last couple days, it is a three-asset ask to get in on the bidding for Mattias Ekholm, which is a first-round pick, an elite prospect and a third asset, which can take on different forms. That’s a lot, and part of that is that the Nashville Predators don’t have to trade Mattias Ekholm at this deadline.
“He’s signed through next season, and really, there’s also, I think, the internal debate for Nashville. Is their best offer at this deadline when contending teams believe they can get Ekholm for two playoff runs? Or is it after the July expansion draft when teams who are interested in him no longer have to worry about their protection issues. So a lot to consider here for Ekholm and the Predators closing in on April 12.”
So, a first-round pick, an elite prospect and a third asset… just “to get in on the bidding.”
The Athletic recently did an interesting exercise involving writers who cover four teams believed to be interested in Ekholm -- the Bruins, Flyers, Canadiens and Jets. They made their offers, which the site’s Predators writer, Adam Vingan, then rejected or accepted.
The Bruins’ offer in that exercise was a first-round pick, center John Beecher and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen. While that roughly fits the framework laid out by LeBrun (depending on whether you consider Beecher an “elite prospect”), it wasn’t enough.
Vingan wound up going with Montreal’s offer and wrote that the Bruins may have to include a more proven commodity such as Jake DeBrusk.
OK… then here is our offer:
Predators trade: Mattias Ekholm
Bruins trade: 2021 first-round pick, Urho Vaakanainen, and either Jake DeBrusk or Jack Studnicka
The thinking here is that Vingan is probably right that the Predators would want a more proven commodity as one of those three assets. Despite DeBrusk’s struggles this season, he has at least shown he can score in the NHL. Beecher, while talented and a first-round pick himself, has yet to even take off offensively at the college level.
If the Predators don’t like DeBrusk or don’t buy into him bouncing back, perhaps you would consider swapping in Studnicka. The 22-year-old has shown he can play at the NHL level, but hasn’t quite broken through as a regular just yet.
He seemed to be on the verge of doing so a couple weeks ago when his play forced Bruce Cassidy to move Sean Kuraly to either the wing or the bench in order to keep Studnicka in the lineup at center, but he couldn’t manage to run with the job and has now gone back to being a healthy scratch recently. That could change again with both Kuraly and David Krejci now on the COVID protocol list.
Studnicka still has the upside to be a second- or third-line center, so he should be an appealing chip. The Bruins would and should be hesitant to trade him, especially knowing that David Krejci could be gone as soon as this summer and Patrice Bergeron is 35.
Trading DeBrusk, despite how low many fans are on him right now, would present a similar dilemma. We know secondary scoring is a problem for the Bruins -- trading one of the few in-house options who offers upside in that area would be tough, and might necessitate another move for a wing.
Perhaps the Bruins could stick with a forward lower in the organizational pecking order and upgrade the young defenseman instead. Would Nashville consider Jeremy Lauzon or Jakub Zboril to be a meaningful upgrade over Vaakanainen? They have certainly looked better at the NHL level this season, and getting Ekholm would mean the Bruins might not have room to play both anyways.
Either way, it’s clear that if you’re acquiring a proven top-four defenseman like Ekholm, the price is going to be steep. Especially because, as LeBrun highlights, the Predators don’t have to trade him right now. You’re probably not going to be super comfortable about what you have to give up.