Two interesting names placed on the Trade Block as more teams prepare for the off-season

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Cooper Godin
June 11, 2023 (9:49)

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This past week brought a bit of chaos on the trade market with the Columbus Blue Jackets at the center of things, acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson. More trade activity is expected over the next several weeks as we head towards the Entry Draft and the start of free agency.

During the second period of Saturday's Game 4 between the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman shared an update on a pair of players who are drawing interest from team's around the National Hockey League.

The first name Elliotte Friedman mentioned was Philadelphia Flyers forward Scott Laughton and that a lot of teams are beginning to call Danny Briere regarding the 29-year-old.

"Well he (Briere) made the big trade earlier this week and people started to call him a bit more. I heard at the combine one of the names that was probably mentioned the most was Scott Laughton. He's signed for three more years at $3 million a season, he's a really good player, teams are always looking for centers. I think the Flyers believe this, look, turning their team over, they're going to have a lot of young players, you need good veterans around them. I think in a perfect world they would like to keep Laughton, but, and this is a but, if they get the right price, they'll consider it. I just heard there's been a lot of teams calling about him." Friedman said.

Friedman also went on to mention that Calgary Flames defenceman Noah Hanifin is beginning to draw interest from teams and that given he's one year away from unrestricted free agency, he's a name to keep an eye on over the next little while.

"I think one of the names you're going to start to hear a little bit here is Noah Hanifin from Calgary. He's got one more year, like a lot of the Calgary players do and I think teams have begun to ask the Flames, 'what exactly are you thinking about here, what's the future?'. And I think, a lot of us are talking about Winnipeg right now and for good reason, but low-key I think Calgary could be just as interesting a team as Winnipeg over the next few weeks, depending on how all these players feel about their futures." Friedman said.

It's certainly shaping up to be a very busy off-season as teams are looking to add to their rosters, despite the salary cap only going up by $1 million next season. As always, there should be plenty of trade activity on draft day and in the next few weeks leading up to it, but July 1st could also be an intriguing day, not only because it's the start of free agency, but the trade market may be very busy as well.