The NHL Trade Market Is Waking Up — Lohrei, Nikishin and Three Star Situations to Watch
GOATIFYNHL training camps are almost here, and the trade market finally has enough smoke to make the next week interesting. August produced almost no established-player movement, but September has already brought a meaningful deal and a fresh wave of questions around teams that still have unfinished roster business.
The names in the latest round of speculation range from useful young defensemen to legitimate franchise stars. Some situations have enough logic behind them to keep watching closely. Others look much louder than they are. The important distinction is whether a team has both a reason to move the player and a realistic path to a deal.
Here are five situations that matter right now, from Boston and Carolina’s blue-line decisions to the much bigger uncertainty around Dylan Larkin, Quinn Hughes and Connor Hellebuyck.
Boston does not have to shop Mason Lohrei for a trade to become realistic
Mason Lohrei is not the kind of name that automatically dominates a league-wide rumor cycle, but his situation is one of the cleaner examples of how a trade can become plausible without a player formally being placed on the block.
The 25-year-old Bruins defenseman dealt with trade chatter for much of last season and then spent stretches of the 2025-26 campaign fighting for a consistent place in the lineup. He was a healthy scratch at times in both the regular season and playoffs. In late August, Lohrei publicly framed the coming season as an opportunity to win a permanent role, which sounded more like a player preparing to compete in Boston than one expecting to leave.
That has not stopped other teams from checking. Fresh reporting this week indicated that league interest has returned, including the reminder that Lohrei had previously surfaced in Boston’s discussions when the Bruins explored larger defensive moves. His contract also makes him movable: he is entering the final season of a two-year deal carrying a $3.2 million average annual value, with restricted free agency and arbitration rights waiting next summer.
The bigger issue is roster construction. Boston has a crowded group of defensemen, and a young blueliner with NHL experience can become a useful currency if management decides it needs more help down the middle. That does not mean the Bruins are aggressively trying to dump Lohrei. It does mean an offer that solves another problem could get a serious hearing.
Alexander Nikishin to St. Louis has stayed alive for a reason
Alexander Nikishin is a more complicated asset because Carolina has a strong reason to keep him and other clubs have an equally obvious reason to ask about him. The 24-year-old defenseman is a restricted free agent after finishing his entry-level deal, and his first full NHL season showed why his value remains high.
Nikishin produced 11 goals and 33 points before his role tightened during Carolina’s Stanley Cup run. That combination of size, age, offense and team control is exactly what makes young defensemen expensive to acquire. It is also why the Hurricanes can afford to be patient rather than accept a discounted return.
St. Louis has been the persistent team in the background. The Blues have been linked to Nikishin for weeks, and the idea fits what their front office is trying to build: a younger, stronger blue line with players who can grow into larger roles instead of simply patching the roster for one season.
The most logical outcome may still be Carolina re-signing him, perhaps on a shorter bridge contract. But unlike a rumor created mostly by a theoretical fit, this one has enough repeated reporting and enough roster logic to stay on the board. If the Hurricanes become convinced that the contract gap is not closing, St. Louis has every reason to be ready.
Dylan Larkin to Montreal is the kind of idea that sounds better on paper than in reality
Dylan Larkin remains one of the biggest names in the trade market because his request to leave Detroit has never been cleanly resolved. The Red Wings are still dealing with front-office uncertainty, and the 30-year-old center cannot simply be sent to whichever bidder offers the best package.
Larkin is signed through 2030-31 at an $8.7 million average annual value and owns a full no-movement clause. His preferred destinations have centered on American contenders, including Minnesota, Florida and Vegas, with Dallas also entering the conversation. Those preferences matter more than almost any creative trade proposal built around him.
Montreal has been floated as a fascinating hockey fit. The Canadiens possess young talent, future assets and enough upside to appeal to a veteran who wants to compete. From a pure roster-building perspective, adding a proven first-line center to that core is easy to imagine.
The problem is the player’s control. Nothing about Larkin’s known list suggests that moving to a Canadian market is what he has been pushing for. Detroit may eventually need him to expand his destinations if the preferred clubs cannot create the cap space or assemble the return necessary to make a deal work, but expanding a list is not the same as abandoning every preference behind the original request.
Until Larkin signals otherwise, Montreal looks much more like an interesting external suggestion than a destination that should be treated as genuinely close.
Quinn Hughes is not an immediate trade candidate, but Minnesota cannot ignore the clock forever
Quinn Hughes occupies a different category. Minnesota wants to keep him, Hughes has spoken positively about the Wild, and there is no indication that a trade is imminent. The uncertainty comes from the absence of a new contract and the enormous financial benchmark now sitting in front of both sides.
Hughes is 26 and entering the final year of a deal with a $7.9 million cap hit. Cale Makar’s record-setting contract in Colorado changed the market for elite defensemen, and Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin has acknowledged that the number matters even if Hughes is approaching his decision in his own way.
Hughes has also made it clear that he does not feel trapped by a training-camp deadline. He wants the decision to make sense for everyone involved, and the Wild remain confident that a long-term agreement can be reached.
That makes September trade talk premature. The pressure point is later. If the season advances and Hughes still has not committed, Minnesota eventually has to weigh the risk of allowing a superstar asset to move closer to unrestricted free agency without certainty. The family connection to New Jersey will guarantee that the Devils remain part of the public conversation because Jack and Luke Hughes are already there.
For now, the correct read is patience rather than panic. But if the same uncertainty exists around the New Year, the tone of the conversation can change very quickly.
Connor Hellebuyck is the biggest trade story — and possibly the hardest major deal to finish
Connor Hellebuyck is still the player most likely to define the NHL trade market before the season gets underway. He has already acknowledged asking Winnipeg for a move, and his résumé guarantees that teams will keep calling.
At 33, Hellebuyck is not simply an experienced starter. He is the league’s only active three-time Vezina Trophy winner, a former Hart Trophy winner and the goaltender who helped the United States win Olympic gold in 2026. A contender that lacks certainty in net can talk itself into a major offer very quickly.
The complication is everything attached to that résumé. Hellebuyck carries an $8.5 million cap hit through 2030-31 and has full no-movement protection. He is reportedly willing to consider a variety of destinations, but several trade paths that may have existed earlier in the summer became harder once teams spent cap space, traded picks or changed their own no-trade structures.
Carolina, Buffalo and Utah have all made sense at different points. Florida has also been connected to the situation, but the Panthers used significant trade capital elsewhere. Buffalo and Winnipeg explored a framework earlier in the offseason, only for a disagreement involving draft positioning to help derail the deal.
That is why Hellebuyck can simultaneously be the most important available player and one of the hardest to move. Winnipeg needs a return that reflects an elite goaltender, the acquiring team needs the cap structure and assets to make the transaction worthwhile, and Hellebuyck ultimately controls whether the destination works for him.
The trade market is finally producing real movement around the edges. Lohrei and Nikishin are plausible names because their teams can imagine hockey reasons to listen. Larkin remains a star with destination control. Hughes is a contract situation that only becomes a trade crisis if time keeps passing. Hellebuyck is the blockbuster everyone can see but nobody has completed. Training camp now gives every one of those situations a deadline-like pressure that August never had.
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