NHL rumblings: Maple Leafs scour defense market, Oilers’ trade targets, Rangers’ no-move list, more

The Toronto Maple Leafs were already sizing up the trade market for defensemen for weeks before Oliver Ekman-Larsson left Wednesday night’s game.

That was before news from colleague Chris Johnston on Thursday that Brandon Carlo may have tweaked something, despite finishing the game.

We’ll get more official word regarding Carlo from the Leafs on Friday after they had the day off Thursday.

The Leafs, of course, were already mired in uncertainty on the blue line, with key defenseman Chris Tanev out with an uncertain timeline. His season could be over, but there’s no official word on that yet. Doing their due diligence, management has been exploring trade options for the past several weeks.

Pending unrestricted free agent Luke Schenn of the Winnipeg Jets has been mentioned as a possibility. I like that fit. You know what you’re getting there.

There’s also Dougie Hamilton of the New Jersey Devils. That’s a more complicated situation, given his contract, with two and a half years left at a $9 million cap hit. The Devils would have to eat some of that to make it work, and even then, I’m not sure how it all comes together. Given that Toronto is believed to be on Hamilton’s approved list of teams as part of his no-trade, you can’t discount it.

And while Leafs’ brass will put together a long list of other targets, the assets at Toronto’s disposal are limited. That’s why Schenn may be a more realistic target.

Whatever the case, a resurgent Leafs team is back in the race and needs to bolster its back end … somehow.

Sweden’s injury nightmare

Ekman-Larsson’s injury also adds to Sweden’s nightmare injury run, although the early word Thursday was that it should not impact his Olympic participation.

Sweden head coach Sam Hallam confirmed Wednesday that he’s proceeding as though he won’t have Jonas Brodin or Leo Carlsson for the Olympics. Brodin is an especially huge loss — one of the best shutdown guys in the NHL and a player who always matches up well with Connor McDavid. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported Tuesday that Brodin will be out six to eight weeks. The Anaheim Ducks announced Friday that Carlsson is out three to five weeks.

Sweden will wait until closer to the Games to name replacements in case they need to sub out other players, as well. Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Gabe Landeskog, Joel Eriksson Ek and William Nylander are also currently out, although most of them are on the mend, and Sweden is hoping they will all be available.

Oilers targeting top nine forwards

The Edmonton Oilers held their pro scouting meetings last week and came away with a list of top nine forwards they intend to target, both in scouting and trade talks, ahead of the March 6 deadline.

Some of those seeds have already been planted by Oilers GM Stan Bowman in conversations with teams around the league. Still, the sense right now is that most of Edmonton’s talks with teams are preliminary and nothing is imminent. A big part of that is that there are so few sellers because of the parity in the standings.

Most likely, an Oilers trade will come after the Olympics. The internal debate is not surprising, mirroring what Edmonton media has been discussing: Are the Oilers better off with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at center or at wing (where he’s so good with McDavid)? That would influence what position they look to trade for. There is no bad answer. Nugent-Hopkins is effective in either spot. What a luxury to have.

There are more wingers available on the market, so that may end up dictating that answer.

Panthers making calls

About a month ago, it looked like the two-time-reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers had recovered from their early-season hangover and were more or less back. However, they’ve regressed and are currently five points out of a playoff spot.

Of course, everyone in the East is in the same spot. There are four teams with 63 or more points at the top of the playoff race, followed by 10 teams between 53 and 59 points. It’s wild.

The Panthers have battled major injuries all year and just got Matthew Tkachuk back — but Seth Jones is another month or so away from being 100 percent, which cost him the Olympics.

In short, Florida is in a bind.

My understanding is that Panthers GM Bill Zito has ramped up making calls around the league to see what could make sense. It sounds like an open-ended approach — not a specific targeted need. They’re open to anything that would be an upgrade. What Zito won’t do is make a trade for the sake of making a trade. They don’t want to fall into that trap. They’re willing to be as patient as possible.

The Panthers have made a lot of smart trades over the past few years, so it’ll be interesting to see how they play this. Still, keep in mind, they need to keep Aleksander Barkov’s cap hit on the books for his (hopeful) expected playoff return, so the cap is a real issue for them, especially with all the injuries this season eating into it.

Miller won’t be part of Rangers exodus

Rangers GM Chris Drury on Friday met individually with all of his players who have full no-move clauses to explain the organization’s new direction and get a sense of how they felt about things.

J.T. Miller, Vladislav Gavrikov, Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad are the players with full no-moves, and as far as I have heard, none of them, so far, has expressed a desire to be moved. Artemi Panarin also has a full no-move, but he’s a pending unrestricted free agent, and the Rangers have told him that they won’t re-sign him and will work with him on a trade before March 6.

Already, Miller’s name has been bandied about in the wake of the Rangers’ letter to fans, but league sources indicate that the Rangers captain has no intention of waiving his no-move. He wants to stay on through the re-tool, and Drury has no intention of approaching him about waiving it. The Rangers traded for him last year and still believe in the move.