Commerce Matt Duchene: What the Sharks Mean Before the NHL Deadline



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The Sharks will see the new member of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

Forward Matt Duchene, who the Blue Jackets acquired on Friday with the Ottawa Senators for a package focused on two potential candidates and two first-round picks, will face San Jose on Saturday.

Beyond the immediate implications for their next game, the Blue Jackets trading for Duchene have ramifications on trading times for the Sharks – good and bad.

The good news for San Jose is that Duchene will not join a Western Conference candidate. The Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets were part of the Duchene-related teams in the lead-up to the deadline. Friday's trading pulls out of one of the best contracts available on the market, meaning that these teams – as well as the Calgary Flames and the Vegas Golden Knights – will have to look elsewhere for help right off the bat .

There are still many prominent attackers available. Duchene Senators teammate Mark Stone and current Blue Jackets teammate Artemi Panarin come to mind. Beyond that, players like Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers and Mats Zuccarello of the New York Rangers could be the next forward for competitors looking for help on time.

This is where the downside of Duchene deals with the Sharks, as the timing of the deal could deter San Jose from making an acquisition.

As Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman noted earlier this week, the Sharks could not pick their first-round pick in both preliminary projects. "[limits] What they can do "At maturity." Friedman said the commercial values ​​of players like Simmonds and Zuccarello would drop the Duchene, Panarin and Stone that were still in the market, which would benefit the Sharks general manager. Doug Wilson, who seems to want to add a winger.

Now, Duchene has a new house and Panarin might not even be moving. The Blue Jackets would be happy to hang the Russian winger in the playoffs, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

These notions already seem to affect the prices requested by the teams. The Rangers are looking for "high choice or high choice and perspective" for Zuccarello, Darren Dreger of TSN reported on Friday.

The Sharks still have second-round picks in each of the two preliminary versions, but only 10 caps in total in 2020 and 2021. Friedman reported Tuesday that he was telling rookie teams Sasha Chmelevski that defender Ryan Merkley only would not be available. the only former first player in the San Jose system after Josh Norris was included in the trade Erik Karlsson.

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In other words, San Jose would probably not be able to win a bidding war by the deadline, and Duchene's trade makes the prospect of a war more likely.

This is not necessarily bad for the Sharks. They will enter Saturday's game against the Flames' three-point Blue Jackets for first place in the Pacific Division and conference.

But the rivals of the Sharks are still trying to improve, and the matching of all potential moves may have become even more difficult.

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