The NHL’s 32 War Rooms have been active in the early part of 2022. Most of the initial high-level meetings have been conducted between executives and their pro and amateur scouting staffs, charting a path toward the March 21 trade deadline, which is now less than five weeks away.

Marching orders are being formulated. With insight from team and league sources, here is a look at the top deadline objectives for each of the eight Pacific Division teams:

Anaheim Ducks

Primary Objective: Sign or Trade

Briefing: Pat Verbeek is just two weeks into his tenure as Ducks GM, but the clock is ticking on new contracts for pending UFAs Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson and Rickard Rakell – probably in that order of importance for the organization. Without knowing Verbeek’s opinion of the players, the smart money is probably on Manson and Lindholm re-signing. There’s no easy avenue to replace those two on the Ducks’ backend; Rakell’s responsibilities can be gobbled up by the young guns on the rise in Anaheim. Either way, if Verbeek is given an indication that either blueliner will cost too much or isn’t willing to re-sign, he’ll likely have to make the decision to cut bait at the deadline given their value on the market and what it would mean toward building the future of the franchise. The fun part is in figuring out what type of other ‘hockey trades’ Verbeek might have up his sleeve to put his first stamp on the roster.

NHL

The Ideal Trade Targets for Each Western Conference Playoff Team

Pieces potentially on the move: Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Jakob Silfverberg, Jacob Larsson

 

 

Calgary Flames

Primary Objective: Defensive depth
Briefing: The red hot Flames checked a big box in adding Tyler Toffoli on Valentine’s Day, fulfilling GM Brad Treliving’s wish for a talented secondary scorer. The best part? Toffoli was basically a pure upgrade. Tyler Pitlick was the only piece pried off the roster in order to make it happen – necessary for salary cap reasons. That Ben Chiarot was originally included in the discussions gives an indication of Calgary’s now primary objective. You can never have too many defensemen, or so the saying goes. The Flames will have just shy of $1 million in salary cap space when deadline day rolls around, so they might have to work with a team on retainment if that is indeed their intention. It sure would be easy, though, if Juuso Valimaki could revert to his old form (pre-knee injury) and be Calgary’s own deadline addition from within.

Pieces potentially on the move: 2022 2nd Round Pick