Welcome to the NHL Trade Buzz. There are 23 days remaining until the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. ET and the buzz is just starting. Will the Chicago Blackhawks ask defenseman Duncan Keith to waive his no-move clause? Will the Pittsburgh Penguins make another move?
Here’s a look around the League at the latest deadline doings.
Chicago Blackhawks
Duncan Keith has been a critical part of the Chicago Blackhawks throughout his 14-year NHL career. But will he be part of the future?
The Blackhawks have not talked to him about waiving his no-move clause, Keith told reporters prior to the Blackhawks 7-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.
“I like it here in Chicago, and nobody’s mentioned anything to me,” the 35-year-old defenseman said on Friday. “I haven’t really thought too much about anything. You get reports out there. I don’t know where that stuff kind of comes from. I just take it one day at a time.”
Keith’s comments came after Pierre LeBrun said on TSN’s Insider Trading on Thursday that the Blackhawks will talk to Keith about options before the trade deadline.
“I find it hard to believe that Duncan Keith will switch teams, but I can tell you this: the Hawks will go to him right before the trade deadline and say, ‘what do you want to do?'” LeBrun said. “He decides his future. He’s a legacy player, but I think [general manager] Stan Bowman and the hierarchy in Chicago will go to him and say, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to go to a contender or stay here with the rebuild?’ That conversation will happen.”
Keith, who is signed through the 2022-23 season, helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. He has 565 points (94 goals, 471 assists) in 1,047 regular season NHL games and 81 points (18 goals, 63 assists) in 126 postseason games. Keith has 22 points (two goals, 20 assists) in 52 games this season.
The Blackhawks (19-24-9, 47 points) are five points behind the Colorado Avalanche (22-20-8, 52 points) for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Chicago plays the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC).
Keith would be a great asset for a contending team, considering past accomplishments and present level of play. He leads Chicago with 22 minutes, 41 seconds of ice time a game this season and has played all 82 games five times in his NHL career, including last season.
“I’m not going to start getting into all that and create a bunch of stories here about what I would think, about what I would do, speculate on how I would feel,” Keith said. “Not getting into that.”
Pittsburgh Penguins
General manager Jim Rutherford has been busy retooling the Penguins. The latest move came on Friday, when the Penguins acquired forwards Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann from the Florida Panthers in a trade for forwards Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan and three picks in the 2019 NHL Draft.
So, the Penguins are done tinkering, right? Maybe not. Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday that he likes the Penguins makeup right now, but things could change before the deadline.
“I like the fact that we were able to make this move early,” he said. “We’ll watch our team real close. I don’t feel any urgency to get back on the phone tomorrow to go and do something else. But as we know, at this time of year, there’s things that come along that you don’t expect. I’m sure that there will be. We’ll see where it goes now.”
The Penguins (28-17-6, 62 points) are second in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind the first-place New York Islanders (29-15-6, 64 points). The Penguins face the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, CBC, SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV) following a 5-3 win against the Ottawa Senators on Friday in which Bjugstad had an assist.
[RELATED: NHL Trade Buzz: Penguins move Brassard hoping for upgrade at center]
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