A goalie headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame and a captain headed to his team’s Hall of Fame are featured on TSN’s first Trade Bait board less than six weeks from the March 21 trade deadline.

But it’s a 23-year-old defenceman, not Chicago’s Marc-Andre Fleury or Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux, who heads up the list.

The Arizona Coyotes’ 6-foot-2, 220-pound blueliner Jakob Chychrun is No. 1.

Chychrun is in his sixth season with Arizona and has three years left on his contract at a team-friendly $4.6-million AAV.

There will be no shortage of suitors calling GM Bill Armstrong, whose Coyotes are well represented on the list, including one of the most enviable assets of all at No. 10: cap space.

Capfriendly.com calculates Arizona’s cap space at $6.7 million as of Feb. 11.

Of course, more could open up with Chychrun, No. 11 Phil Kessel and No. 25 Johan Larsson all on the Trade Bait list.

Goalies of Fleury’s stature are seldom available at the deadline. The three-time Stanley Cup champion ranks No. 3 on the Trade Bait list and No. 3 on the all-time list of regular-season wins behind Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.

Fleury, 37, is tied for seventh in starts (34) this season and most recently stoned Edmonton Wednesday, stopping 40 of 41 shots he faced. Oilers’ head coach Dave Tippett was fired Thursday.

As for Giroux, the 2022 NHL All-Star MVP is No. 4 on the Trade Bait list and could waive his no-trade clause and chase a Stanley Cup, which has so far eluded him.

The 34-year-old centre is enjoying something of a renaissance this season. With 15 goals in 43 games, he is scoring goals at his highest pace (.35 goals per game) in four years.

Eighteen players in the Top 25 are slated to be unrestricted free agents (UFA) after this season. Two are impending restricted free agents (No. 17 Jake DeBrusk, No. 21 Vitali Kravtsov) and four have term remaining (Chychrun, No. 9 J.T. Miller, No. 16 Jeff Petry, No. 19 Anton Khudobin.)

Miller is notable not just because he is one of two players in the top 10 – Montreal’s Ben Chiarot at No. 2 is the other – who play for Canadian teams but because he is also the highest-scoring player in the top 25.

With 46 points in 46 games, the Vancouver centre is on pace for the second point-per-game season of his 10-year NHL career.

Data listed below are position, age, 2021-22 NHL games, goals, points, cap hit and contract years past this season.  

 

Trade Bait - Feb. 11

 
Player Pos Age GP G P Cap Hit Years
1. Jakob Chychrun, Ari LD 23 36 2 10 $4.6M 3
2. Ben Chiarot, Mtl RD 30 43 5 9 $3.5M UFA
3. Marc-Andre Fleury, Chi G 37 34 2.88 .910 $7M UFA
4. Claude Giroux, Phi C 34 43 15 36 $8.275M UFA
5. John Klingberg, Dal RD 29 38 1 25 $4.25M UFA
6. Tomas Hertl, SJ C 28 46 22 38 $5.625M UFA
7. Mark Giordano, Sea LD 38 41 4 18 $6.75M UFA
8. Max Domi, Clb LW 26 35 8 21 $5.3M UFA
9. J.T. Miller, Van C 28 46 16 46 $5.25M 1
10. Arizona Cap Space              
11. Phil Kessel, Ari RW 34 47 6 31 $8M UFA
12. Mark Pysyk, Buf RD 30 46 1 9 $900K UFA
13. Calvin de Haan, Chi LD 30 43 1 4 $4.55M UFA
14. Nick Leddy, Det LD 30 44 1 12 $5.5M UFA
15. Andrew Copp, Wpg C 27 43 12 28 $3.64M UFA
16. Jeff Petry, Mtl RD 34 39 1 6 $6.25M 3
17. Jake DeBrusk, Bos LW 25 40 7 15 $3.675M RFA
18. Colin Miller, Buf RD 29 32 2 12 $3.875M UFA
19. Anton Khudobin, Dal G 35 9 3.63 .879 $3.33M 1
20. Rasmus Ristolainen, Phi RD 27 42 2 11 $5.4M UFA
21. Vitali Kravtsov, NYR* RW 22 19 6 13 $925K RFA
22. Chris Tierney, Ott C 27 43 6 12 $3.5M UFA
23. Marc Staal, Det LD 35 41 1 6 $2M UFA
24. Calle Jarnkrok, Sea C 30 35 8 16 $2M UFA
25. Johan Larsson, Ari C 29 29 6 15 $1.4M UFA
 

* - KHL statistics