With the trade deadline inching closer and the "mini-deadline" nearing, as reported by Jeff Marek in last week’s Rink Fries, there’s more focus on players who could be on the move.

What might those trade candidates bring to an acquiring team? We’ve covered a few defenders already, so now let’s look at three forwards on the block.

Claude Giroux

In the final year of his contract, the Philadelphia Flyers could move their captain to a playoff team in need of a boost up front; Giroux will have some control over his next move seeing as he has a no-movement clause.

With a player like Giroux, there are two key pieces of context needed to assess him as a trade piece: his age and his surroundings.

An acquiring team is getting 34-year-old Giroux, not the 30-year-old who put up 102 points in 2017-18 or even 85 in 2018-19. He isn’t the same scorer he once was at this phase in his career. That said, the Flyers are a disaster. So getting him into a new, more successful environment should put him in a better position to succeed than anything he’s been in this year.

Just going back to last season shows the complete player he can still be, even at centre after struggling there, at times, in previous seasons. There’s still that top-six capability, but he’s not the star on a team anymore, like he’s still had to be on the Flyers; he’s currently their leader in scoring rate with 2.7 points per 60 through 38 games. Luckily on a contender, he won’t have to be that, and will likely have more support around him.

In Giroux, an acquiring team gets some versatility in that he can slot into any forward position. If at centre, they gain a player who's strong at the dot. The veteran still has positive impacts on both ends of the ice at even strength.