The NHL trade and free-agent market has a way of forcing teams into Plan B, and that’s exactly where three separate storylines have landed right now.
In Columbus, Kirill Marchenko has been the name drawing the loudest trade chatter. He’s the kind of winger teams covet: big, skilled, and still carrying the kind of upside that makes people pay attention.
The idea behind the buzz was simple enough - the Blue Jackets might move him if a long-term deal didn’t look likely. That possibility made him a tempting target.
But the “imminent” part of those rumors has cooled off enough that another name is starting to surface if Columbus changes course.
That fallback option is Dmitri Voronkov. At 6-foot-5 and 234 pounds, he brings a different look entirely.
He’s younger, works the dirty areas in front of the net, and does a lot of his damage on tips and rebounds. He doesn’t bring the same speed as Marchenko, but he could be the more affordable answer if the Blue Jackets decide not to cash in the way people expected.
Marchenko remains the dream scenario. Voronkov is the practical one.
A similar kind of hindsight has settled over Montreal’s old P.K. Subban-for-Shea Weber swap.
At the time, it was the sort of trade that split people fast. Subban was all flash and force, the kind of player who lit up a building.
Weber was steadier, quieter, and built in a more traditional mold. On the surface, it felt like Montreal was giving up the wrong guy.
But the deal aged differently. Weber became a major part of the Canadiens’ core and eventually wore the captain’s “C.” Injuries later complicated the story, and the what-if factor never fully went away, but the bigger picture is harder to argue with now: Montreal got the player it needed.
Then there’s Vladimir Tarasenko, still sitting in free agency weeks after the market opened. The lack of movement doesn’t come from a lack of production.
He scored 23 goals last season, which is plenty respectable. The issue is that teams haven’t rushed to commit, and that’s exactly why Oilers fans are watching this one closely.
For Edmonton, the appeal is obvious. Tarasenko would add another legitimate shooter to a lineup that already leans on top-end skill, and he’d fit on lines and power plays that could use that kind of finishing touch.
The only real question is cost. The Oilers don’t want to overpay, but if Tarasenko’s market keeps drifting and he settles into a short, team-friendly deal, it starts to look like the kind of low-risk move that can pay off fast.
In Other News...
Canadiens Still Have The One Camp Battle Fans Dreaded Most
Training camp in Montreal is about to answer one of the questions fans have been bracing for all summer: who gets the second-line center job? Oliver Kapanen, Kirby Dach and Jake Evans are the main names in the mix, and each brings a different case to the table. Kapanen showed he can score, Dach still carries the allure of a higher-ceiling fit in the middle, and Evans offers the steadier, more established two-way profile that coaches tend to trust when the games start to matter.
Martin St. Louis and his staff now have to sort through upside, health and reliability while trying to find the right partner for Ivan Demidov. It is the kind of camp battle that can shape more than one lineup card, because the choice at center will ripple through the rest of the forward group and influence how much pressure falls on the rest of the roster. The Canadiens know the spot is open, but the harder part is deciding which option best balances what they need now with what they hope to become later. [Read more 🡒]
Brett Kulak Trade Looks A Lot Different For Oilers Now
When Montreal sent Brett Kulak to Edmonton in March 2022, it looked like a straightforward depth trade, the kind of move that usually fades into the background. The Canadiens got William Lagesson, a second-round pick in 2022 and a seventh-rounder in 2024, while Kulak went on to spend three seasons with the Oilers before his path took him elsewhere.
For Edmonton, the deal once seemed like a useful short-term pickup with a manageable cost. For Montreal, it has become the kind of transaction that keeps aging well, especially as the pick they received turned into a player who has become a key young piece on the blue line. The Oilers got useful mileage out of Kulak, but the longer the story plays out, the more the trade looks like one that shifted in the Canadiens' favor. [Read more 🡒]