NHL Trade Deadline Primer: Timo Meier is worth the price (whatever it might be)

He is the player you want your team to acquire at the NHL trade deadline.

The NHL trade deadline is just around the corner, so let’s take a deeper look at some individual players and teams that figure to make headlines over the next few weeks. We look at available players, why they are on the market, what they might bring in a trade, teams that should be interested, and much more. We start today with San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier.

Now that Bo Horvat has gone from the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Islanders, that should leave Meier as the top potential trade target available.

He probably should have been at the top of mosts lists even before Horvat was traded because he is that good. He is also only a restricted free agent after this season instead of an unrestricted free agent, which gives any acquiring team his rights for at least one full season and the first crack at re-signing him to a new long-term deal.

There is a lot of value in that.

As of Wednesday, Meier is scoring at a point-per-game pace in San Jose and has already topped the 30-goal mark for the second year in a row. His 30 goals in 52 games puts him on a 47-goal pace over a full season, and the most promising thing about those numbers is nothing about his goal-scoring the past two years has been propped up by an unsustainable shooting percentage surge (something that can not be said about a player like Horvat).

He is legitimately good, and a lethal top-line player with exceptional skill and a willingness and ability to make plays around the net. Whatever you like in a top-line forward (skill, size, production) he has it all and every borderline contender in the league should be looking into what his cost would be.

Especially since he is still in what should be the meaty part of his prime years.

So why would the Sharks want to trade him?