The Puck Stops Here

The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow. So far, this has not led to any trades. I expect there will be some, but it may not be as busy as fans have become used to in years past. A salary cap is one more constraint that makes trades harder to make.

Instead of jumping into speculation about which players might get moved (why discuss what probably won't happen - when I can discuss what is happening? - if you really need this speculation look at Lyle Richardson (the March 8th trade bait article)), I will take another view. The NHL trade deadline often corresponds with trade deadlines in fantasy hockey leagues. In the NHL or in a fantasy league, ideally one wants to obtain players who are going to play very well in the remainder of the season. The best way to look for these players is to look for players who are hot right now in the NHL.

Here are the top scorers in the NHL since January first of this year. If you can acquire any of these players, likely you are doing very well.

Top NHL scorers in 2006 so far.

Name	Team	Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points
Joe Thornton	SJ	23	10	24	34
Alexander Ovechkin	Was	23	18	14	32
Eric Staal	Car	23	13	18	31
Jaromir Jagr	NYR	22	17	13	30
Jonathan Cheechoo	SJ	23	16	14	30
Sergei Zubov	Dal	25	5	25	30
Andy McDonald	Ana	23	10	19	29
Ilya Kovalchuk	Atl	23	16	12	28
Marian Hossa	Atl	23	13	15	28
Erik Cole	Car	22	17	10	27
Mark Recchi	Pit	25	13	14	27
Henrik Zetterberg	Det	20	12	15	27
Alex Tanguay	Col	23	11	16	27
Teemu Selanne	Ana	23	9	18	27
Pavel Datsyuk	Det	23	7	20	27
Henrik Sedin	Van	25	6	21	27

Are any of these players available in the NHL or in your fantasy league? Are their prices reasonable? Will any be traded? We will know in a short period of time.