NHL Trade Deadline is coming up!

I love the list.

I'm glad you're available to chat with me. Here's Greg Wyshinsky of ESPN and ESPN.com. We're sitting here a year after last season, and I think the last time we talked about this, what does Carolina need? Well, they need a goal scorer. I think that's probably what they need again.

It's the same stuff, different day. In particular, you know, someone who's going to get in that goal in the playoffs. We talked about it a year ago. We've talked about it in the preseason. Like they clearly are a pretty decent offensive team. I mean, they're, they're, I've been right around the top 10, I think in goals per game average throughout the season. But my concern for them remains in those tight series. Like we saw with the Florida Panthers last year, for example, that the hurricanes remain a team that needs that, you know, probably winger that can get them that gold and a certain point in the game, be it overtime or elsewhere, that's going to put them over the top. And, and to me, that remains the flaw on this roster. I mean, look, I've been trying to deny this. And part of it is this for me. And I did, I said this, it was before the, not before this season, but before last season.

And I do, you know, I podcast and I do a bunch of cane stuff. And I always thought that their biggest level of improvement was going to come from within. Andrei Svechterkov getting better. Martin Neches returning to being a good player. Those things happen. And then Svechnerkov wasn't there in the postseason, which came after the trade deadline, his injury, although there's no excuse to not replace Max Pacioretti.

He got him for a reason. And Martin Neches, his offense completely vanished after the Svechnerkov injury. And this year, I think a lot of that is still true in that Sebastian Ajo and Andrei Svechnerkov, who had a blistering hot streak for about a month in January, have not been great.

The points are sort of still there, but it hasn't seemed that way. I think more than anything, they need those guys to be good. But from the outside, do you see Carolina paying the prices to get one of these impact forwards on your list?

They are frugal. I mean, you know, they've gone out and obviously made some pretty big trades, but it's not necessarily a deadline trade for this team in most seasons. But, you know, there are certainly some players that would that would fit the bill. I mean, the two guys that are right at the top of my trade board, number one is Jake Gensle from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Again, his availability is of some question because they are, you know, hanging in the playoff race. He's clearly a guy that they need if they're ever going to actually make a push in the playoffs if they get there. And then the other complication, obviously, is despite having an expiring contract, he's the best winger Sidney Crosby's ever played with.

And maybe you don't want to inconvenience your star captain like that. So, you know, his availability is of some issue. But I mean, the noise coming out of Pittsburgh and from other places is that people do believe he's going to move.

And the other guys, Talibas Navich from the team who was blue is a team that has a current currently a less than 10% chance of taking the playoffs in the West. This is a point per game winger. He signed for the rest of this season and next season.

Again, it's going to cost a bunch. They've made that clear, the Blues. But if he's available, I mean, he is the kind of one of the few game changing wingers I think available at the deadline on that on that that that tier where cancel is.

Greg Washinsky from ESPN and ESPN dot com is joining us here. And that the fact that he is that he is under contract for another year actually for the hurricanes makes it more possible that they would be interested. Now I think you wrote that they're using the baseline, the Elias Lindholm trade as the baseline for acquisition. Now, I can't imagine they're saying that he's as good. Are they saying that he is as good as Elias Lindholm? Because I don't think he is as good as Elias Lindholm. I certainly think he has incredible value. I think Lindholm is a better player than Butch Navage. But because he's also a two way player, he plays in the defensive end as well. I think Carolina might be more inclined, but I don't know if they are willing to go to that extreme for Pavel Butch Navage.

No, I mean, I think I think you're right. I think Lindholm is a better player in totality. I think he's a better 200 foot player. And in the past has shown that if he's put on the right offensive grouping, he can, he can be one of the better offensive players in your team, but you know, it's the market, right? I mean, let's go further than last night with the Christiana trade between the Dallas stars and the Calgary flames of the devil's picking up some of the freight on his contract. I mean, there, there are teams around the league right now that are probably kicking themselves because Calgary basically traded him for a low second round pick and maybe a third if the stars make the Stanley cup final. And so a lot of the teams, I thought they were going to, you know, really make some, some headway as far as the assets being traded at the deadline with their own defensive. Defensemen are probably kicking themselves right now. And, and meanwhile, you have a team like St. Louis that could point to the Lindholm trade and say, well, this is the going rate for a top line forward in which push Navage is.

So again, it's, it's, it's not real. I mean, you can come back and say, this guy ain't worth it, but St. Louis could easily come back and be like, you know, tap, tap the sticker on the front of the car and say, that's the retail price, sir. You know, take it or leave it. Right. They don't have to meet your price, which unfortunately for hurricanes fans, you know, is, you know, Tom Dundon to his credit. And I think he deserves credit for almost across the board for not really saddling himself to bad contracts.

Right. And I think they have made smart, smart trades. My only criticism is that at times, mostly deadlines, they are not willing to meet the market price because the market price at deadlines tends to be significantly higher than it is during the off season. And they will not make a trade if they wouldn't make the trade in July, they won't make it on March 8th.

That's just the way that they have operated. What about down your board? I know Adam Henrique is not quite that far down your board. What kind of an impact could Henrique make on a team like Carolina? Well, he's an interesting player in the sense that, you know, he can be in the middle of your lineup or he can play on the wing. I mean, I think Henrique certainly has a lot to offer 38 points in 57 games. That includes 16 goals. He's good in the face off circle. He's, he's really good killing penalties. I think Anaheim would probably eat up a lot of his salary cap hit.

And, and I think that he, he's, he's going to help somebody. I mean, there are teams like Colorado that have been rumored to be in the business, the Rangers, Edmonton. I think once Lindholm and Monahan came off the board earlier this year, it made Henrique the most desirable choice, at least at center.

But like I said, you can also play on the wing too. Greg Wyshinsky, ESPN is joining us here in the Adam Gold show. I said one of the post-game podcasts I did, and this goes all the way back to probably either late November, early December. I said this definitively. If the Hurricanes do not make a trade for a goaltender, they will not buy.

And I said, buy Christmas. I'm not kidding. I, if the Hurricanes do not make a trade for a goaltender by Christmas, they will not make the playoffs. I was that, I was in that particular place with Carolina's goaltending and the numbers said I was right. And then from December 12th, the game in Ottawa until today, they've got a top, their goaltending is top five in the league. It's crazy what has happened because their, their save percentage as a team since that game in Ottawa is 9-11, which would put them right now, I think fifth best in the NHL.

How is it viewed from outside of the 9-1-9 area code? Well, again, you know, the thing about the Hurricanes is that for all the hand wringing and consternation about, about who's in goal for them, it comes back to the fact that from, from a season long perspective, this team is the best team and expected goals against it five on five in the league. So all you need is somebody who's competent and in the checkoffs case, you've been better than competent and the team in front of them is going to set him up for success. It's when it's when you have those situations like they've had earlier this season where they couldn't get a save despite playing really well in front of their goaltending, that things kind of didn't, didn't go as well as, as planned. But the environment, you hear a lot about the environment that teams create for their goaltenders to succeed. How long has any, any team in the league outside of maybe Dallas, maybe Boston last year, Vegas, probably in the conversation too, that, that sets up their goalies for success better than the Carolina hurricanes.

So to see somebody catch fire the way that could check off has isn't, isn't necessarily a shock. Especially when they, they picked up the Vezina trophy winner off waivers. I can't make, I have no clue what to, what to even say about Spencer Martin. His first game is at Boston. He was brilliant in a win. He is one, he is one at Vegas. He's, he's three, oh, and one, he's going to start tonight against Columbus.

I guess I just let the cat out of the bag. He's going to start, he's going to start tonight against Columbus. He's been tremendous. They just need to figure out what happens when Frederick Anderson comes back off the injured list. Cause I don't believe a team has ever carried four goalies on their roster. They haven't, but I mean, again, under the category of good problems to have having a bunch of goal offenders you could turn to is always a good thing. Look, no further than Vegas last year that used five different guys before it was the Aidan Hill show for two months. You know, there, there are certainly teams that are a bit envious of the situation that Carolina hurricane find themselves in to have this many options this late in the season. All right.

Final thing for you. And this is a hypothetical because we're trying to figure out how now they can always put Aunty Ronta on the injured list. He's right now on the active roster. So they can carry three goalies cause they were only carrying one extra defenseman, one extra forward when Anderson at some point will come off of the injured list.

If Ronta is healthy, how does Carolina keep Spencer Martin at least within the system and available to them? And would this, would this work? Cause I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Giving him a two year contract extension where the first year is a two way deal with a guarantee of like, I don't know, $250,000 or so, uh, you know, minimum if, if, if, even if he plays the entire year in the minors with the second year being a full NHL contract for the league minimum, would a team in the NHL who needs goaltending still take him off waivers if he was available?

Yeah, I think they probably would. We had based on how things have gone and I, I don't, I mean, I, listen, I, I'm by no means a CBA expert, like the guys run cat friendly, but I got, I would have to check to see if you could assign two different designations in two different years of the same contract like that. Um, but listen, like I said, it's, it's a good problem to have.

I'm sure they'll figure it out. It's, it's better than being in a position in which you're, you're hoping and praying that one guy emerges to have this many options right now. Yeah.

Well, I think the hurricanes did that with Steph Nason a couple of years ago. Well, there you go. Like I said, I, I, I, I defer, I defer to you. I defer to everybody else to, you know, as a CBA, I spend most of my time reading X-Men comics versus the collective bargaining agreement.

So I, I, I defer to everybody else. Ah, man, Greg Wyshinsky, uh, will we see you before the playoffs or do we have to wait for the hurricanes to open up the series against somebody? Oh, it'll be, it'll be the playoffs and I, and I hope it's a play. I'll say I was, uh, I was just reminiscing about my time in Raleigh, uh, recently when I was at the stadium series net life and connecting with all my devil fans friends while they were tailgating and being like, you know, the, the only place that I know that does it as well as they do it outside of a football games in New York is when they do it outside of hockey games in Raleigh. So, you know, I want to get back.

That was very nice. By the way, the devil's gonna move on Lindy rough. It's, it's been a rough year there. So despite pardon, pardon the pun, if so, I think it's after the season.

I don't see any point in doing it now. I think they're going to evaluate a few things in the off season if they miss the playoffs, but you know, take the penguins and the, and the devils are the two teams that are outside the picture in both conferences right now, where if I told you, you know, they had a great two and a half weeks and now they're in a wild card, I don't think you'd be shocked by it. So they're still holding out hope they can make a run, but it is going to get late. Yeah, no, uh, devils could make a run. They're that good. I still think Pittsburgh, even though I don't think Pittsburgh's that good.

They've got so many games in hand that it's not out of the realm of possibility that they, if they got hot, they would find themselves right in the thick of it for a wild card spot. Greg was Shinsky at was Shinsky on Twitter. I appreciate your time for me, SPM. We'll talk to you soon. Anytime. Thanks for having me. You got Greg was Shinsky here on the Adam gold show.