NHL Trade Deadline Primer: The players that could have a shockingly high trade value

It always happens. It will almost certainly happen again.

The 2023-24 NHL Trade Deadline is just a few weeks away so it is time to start taking a look at some of the teams and players that could be big factors. Today we look at a handful of players that could have a shockingly high trade value and go for way more than you expect (if they actually get moved).

Every year around this time there is always at least one trade that makes you question everything you thought you knew about player value.

Just a few recent examples:

• Brandon Hagel going for two first-round picks (though, in hindsight, this actually looks like a fine trade because Hagel has erupted in Tampa Bay).

• Tanner Jeannot going for FIVE draft picks, including a future first-rounder.

• Ben Chiarot going for a first-round pick, a fourth-round pick and a prospect.

• Blake Coleman for a first-round pick and Nolan Foote (who was picked in the first round one year earlier)

• Barclay Goodrow for a first-round pick.

• Tomas Tatar for first, second, and third-round picks.

• Douglas Murray for two second-round picks.

• Paul Gaustad for a first-round pick.

There are more if you really dig into it, but these are some of the more prominent ones that stood out to me.

There are a couple of common denominators in these types of moves.

1. Tampa Bay made FOUR of those trades (Hagel, Jeannot, Coleman and Goodrow) which is … interesting.

2. They typically involve players that have term remaining on their contract and are signed for below market rates. The contract and cost certainty under the cap for future seasons is simply a huge part of the trade value. If you know you’re getting a player that can help you this season AND in future seasons while knowing exactly what it does to your long-term cap outlook the trading team is in a position too demand more and the buying team is more inclined to pay more.

3. The other type of player involved here is “the playoff guy.” The player that general managers will romanticize for their ability to play the tough, gritty, grinding game you need in the playoffs, whether or not it is something that actually improves the team.

At some point over the next couple of weeks another deal like this is going to get made.

This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad trade for the team buying. Sometimes a deadline “overpay” is worth it, and if your team ends up going on a deep playoff run or even wins the Stanley Cup nobody is going to complain about it. There is a good chance — or at least a decent chance — that the player you acquire is going to give you more value in half a season or one-and-a-half seasons than any of those draft picks or prospects will ever produce.

It just means that we sometimes don’t always completely grasp the value of individual players at this time of the season until they actually get dealt.

So with all of that said, let’s look at three players that I could see bringing a pretty shocking return if they end up getting traded.

The obvious one at the top — Scott Laughton of the Philadelphia Flyers.