Worldwide Sports News

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Olympic silver medalist Brad Marchand scored twice, Evan Rodrigues got the first short-handed goal of his career and added an assist, and the Florida Panthers resumed their playoff push with a 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

Marchand now has 27 goals, tying Sam Reinhart for the team lead. Olympic bronze medalist Anton Lundell had two assists for Florida, while Carter Verhaeghe and gold medalist Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Panthers — the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions who began the night eight points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for Florida, which had lost five of its last six games going into the break.

John Tavares scored for Toronto, which started the night six points out of a playoff berth and — like the Panthers — is looking for some late-season magic to get into the postseason. Joseph Woll stopped 31 shots .

Marchand — after watching a celebration of USA Hockey’s Olympic gold medal to start the game, a win that came over his Canada club — opened the scoring just 3:18 into the contest, the start of a three-goal opening period for the Panthers.

It was only the second time this season that Florida scored three times in an opening period; it had four goals in the first 20 minutes of an 8-3 win in Nashville on Nov. 24.

PENGUINS 4, DEVILS 1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Connor Clifton and Egor Chinakhov scored 50 seconds apart in the third period and Pittsburgh surged past Jack Hughes and reeling New Jersey.

Tommy Novak, serving as the first-line center while captain Sidney Crosby recovers from a lower-body injury sustained at the Milan Cortina Olympics, picked up his 12th goal of the season. Blake Lizotte added an empty-netter late for Pittsburgh, which has won eight of 10 to move into second place in the crowded Metropolitan Division.

Arturs Silovs stopped 28 shots to win for the fourth time in five starts.

Paul Cotter scored his sixth goal of the season for the Devils but couldn’t halt New Jersey’s slide. The Devils have dropped seven of eight to fall off the pace in the race for one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots.

HURRICANES 5, LIGHTNING 4

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho banged in a power-play goal through traffic midway through the third period to help Carolina beat Tampa Bay.

Aho’s shot from up top slipped past Jonas Johansson, with Carolina captain Jordan Staal rooted in front of Johansson at the top of the crease to make it 5-4 at the 7:17 mark of the third.

That decided a back and forth matchup of the Eastern Conference’s top two teams, with Carolina jumping to a 3-0 lead in the first seven minutes in its return from the Olympic break only to see Tampa Bay tie it early in the second period.

The game ended with the Hurricanes holding up against the Lightning going with an extra attacker for the last three minutes, with multiple Lightning players diving on the ice to stop Carolina’s repeated attempts at an empty-net clincher until the horn sounded.

Carolina pushed its point streak to 11 games, while Tampa Bay lost in regulation for only the second time since Dec. 18.

BURINS 4, BLUE JACKETS 2

BOSTON (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson scored twice, Joonas Korpisalo made 36 saves and Boston beat Columbus in the first game for both teams after the three-week break for the Olympics.

Morgan Geekie and Sean Kuraly and also scored for the Bruins. Kuraly gave Boston a two-goal lead in the third period, but Columbus pulled within one with six minutes left when Adam Fantilli ripped a shot from the high slot.

The Blue Jackets pulled goalie with Elvis Merzlikins with two minutes left, and Arvidsson scored into the empty net in the final minute.

Kirill Marchenko scored his 20th of the season for Columbus, and Merzlikins made 19 saves.

RED WINGS 2, SENATORS 1, OT

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Dylan Larkin scored in his second goal of game at 1:50 of overtime, John Gibson made 26 saves and Detroit beat Ottawa.

Larkin beat Linus Ullmark with a backhander in the tiebreaker.

Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk opened the scoring in the first period. Ullmark stopped 18 shots.

Detroit tied it at 1 on a power play early in the second when Lucas Raymond fed Larkin at the side of the net for a one-timer past Ullmark.

Just over two minutes later, Simon Edvinsson stepped into Tkachuk, with the Senators forward’s stick bouncing up and hitting him in the face. Tkachuk dropped to the ice, and Dylan Cozens jumped to his captain’s defense. Edvinsson and Cozens were both sent to the box.

Tkachuk returned to the ice before play resumed and skated to the penalty box to confront Edvinsson, drawing a 10-minute misconduct. Once in the box, Tkachuk continued to voice his displeasure.

ISLANDERS 4, CANADIENS 3, OT

MONTREAL (AP) — Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored 3:14 into overtime, rookie Matthew Schaefer had two goals in a 55-second span in the second period and New York rallied to beat Montreal.

Schaefer has 18 goals to surpass Denis Potvin for the most by a rookie defenseman in team history. Schaefer, selected first overall in last year’s draft, also moved past Phil Housley for the most goals in NHL history by an 18-year-old defenseman.

Islanders captain Anders Lee, skating in his 900th game, also scored and Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves to help New York win its third straight. Sorokin improved to 7-0-2 in his career against Montreal.

The Canadiens’ Noah Dobson scored two goals in his first game against his former team. Cole Caufield scored his team-leading 33rd goal for Montreal in the third period and Samuel Montembeault made 23 saves.

BLUES 5, KRAKEN 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Dylan Holloway had a hat trick and added an assist in his return from a sprained ankle, Joel Hofer made 23 saves and St. Louis came off the Olympic break to beat Seattle.

Jordan Kyrou and Holloway — activated from injured reserve before the game — scored in a 23-second span early in the second period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Pius Suter added a goal and two assists to help the Blues end a three-game losing streak.

Holloway completed St. Louis’ first hat trick of the season with 3:01 left, scoring into an empty net for his 11th of the season.

Kaapo Kakko tied it at 1 for Seattle in the first period, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 shots. The Kraken were coming off a 4-1 loss in Dallas on Wednesday night.

Kyrou made it 2-1 at 1:12 of the second off a feed from Pavel Buchnevich on a break. Holloway poked the puck past Grubauer off a scramble at 1:35. Suter scored at 1:56 of the third.

PREDATORS 4, BLACKHAWKS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan O’Reilly scored with 3:16 remaining and Nashville scored three times in the third period in a win over Chicago in the teams’ first game following the Olympic break.

Filip Forsberg and Matthew Wood also scored for Nashville. Steven Stamkos scored his 29th of the season into an empty net in the final minute for the Predators, who had lost two in a row and five of their last seven games heading into the break. Justus Annunen stopped 21 of 23 shots.

Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Blackhawks, who have one victory in their last eight games. Spencer Knight made 22 saves.

Forsberg scored unassisted with just over six minutes remaining in the first period. Forsberg, who played for fourth-place finisher Sweden at the Olympics, scored his 25th of the season.

Bedard scored his career-best 25th goal just over four minutes into the second period to tie the game at 1. Ryan Greene had his 14th assist. Bedard had 22 goals in 68 games in 2023-24 and 24 goals in 82 games last season.

FLYERS 3, RANGERS 2

NEW YORK (AP) — Matvei Michkov scored his second goal of the game 2:10 into overtime and Samuel Ersson made 23 saves as Philadelphia rallied to beat New York.

Michkov beat Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin for his 15th goal of the season after the Rangers failed to score on a power play to start the extra period.

Trevor Zegras also scored for the Flyers, who trailed 2-0 early in the second period before rallying for their second win since Jan. 23.

Sam Carrick and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the New York, which lost their fifth straight game. Shesterkin, who suffered a lower-body injury in a home loss to Utah on Jan. 5, made 21 saves in his return. The Rangers are 6-15-5 at home this season.

Carrick opened the scoring at 9:56 of the first, beating Ersson with a shot from long range for his fourth goal. Lafreniere’s 13th of the season made it 2-0 at 1:23 of the second.

Michkov scored on the power play at 10:25 of the second, cutting the Flyers’ deficit to 2-1. Zegras scored 39 seconds into the third to tie the game at 2.

WILD 5, AVALANCHE 2

DENVER (AP) — U.S. Olympian Matt Boldy had two goals and two assists, Filip Gustavsson stopped 44 shots and Minnesota beat Colorado for its sixth straight victory.

In Minnesota’s first game after the Olympic break, Boldy extended his points streak to seven games, and fellow U.S. teammate Quinn Hughes had his team-leading 53rd assist of the season.

Gustavsson improved to 17-2-4 in his past 23 games.

Joel Eriksson Ek had two power-play goals, giving him six goals in Minnesota’s past seven games and 26 points over his past 24 games. Mats Zuccarello also scored for Minnesota.

Martin Necas scored twice for NHL-leading Colorado, which returned from the break Wednesday night with a victory in Utah. The Avs are 5-6-2 in their past 13 after starting the season 33-4-7.

FLAMES 4, SHARKS 1

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Nazem Kadri scored two goals and Calgary beat San Jose in the first game back from the Olympic break for both teams.

Connor Zary broke a tie early in the third period when he beat Yaroslav Askarov with a shot for the slot on the rush. Kadri provided some needed insurance when he converted after a defensive-zone turnover by Timothy Liljegren for his second goal of the game.

Mikael Backlund added an empty-net goal to seal the win.

Dustin Wolf, a native of nearby Gilroy, made 34 saves to improve to 10-2 in his career against San Jose.

Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who lost the opener of a crucial six-game homestand as they try to make a playoff run. San Jose began the night five points out of a playoff spot.

Askarov made 25 saves.

OILERS 8, KINGS 1

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Connor McDavid secured his ninth 100-point season with a goal and an assist, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists, and Edmonton snapped its four-game skid with a victory over Los Angeles.

McDavid scored his 35th goal and Draisaitl got his 30th during his fourth four-point game of the season as the Oilers again routed the opponent they’ve knocked out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of the past four seasons.

Jake Walman scored two goals, Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists, and Ty Emberson, Vasily Podkolzin and Andrew Mangiapane also scored in Edmonton’s impressive rebound from a painful loss in Anaheim. Connor Ingram made 22 saves for the Oilers, who have returned from the Olympic break with 13 goals in two games.

Warren Foegele scored for the Kings, who have lost five straight games since January. Los Angeles’ humiliating third-period collapse against Vegas one night earlier bled into this game: When Hyman scored on a power play midway through the second period, the Kings had allowed 10 goals in their past 41 minutes of play.

Darcy Kuemper gave up four goals on 15 shots before getting pulled early in the second period for Anton Forsberg.

There was a point, about midway through Thursday’s 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh, where it kind of, sort of felt as if the Devils might manage to salvage a point, maybe even steal two from the Penguins.

Paul Cotter had scored, an almost water-to-wine level miracle. Jacob Markstrom was playing as well as he has at any point this season. The Devils sure seemed to be spending a lot of time in the Penguins’ end.

But that was more a function of the Penguins playing much of the second period short-handed than anything the Devils did. And, the Devils failed to make Pittsburgh pay for any of the slew of second-period penalties that could have easily turned the game New Jersey’s way.

Instead, the Penguins killed all four Devils’ power plays before scoring three unanswered third period goals to send the Devils to their fifth straight loss.

The Devils have now dropped five in a row for the second time this season. Five-Game Losing Streak No. 1 was the Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 skid that began their free fall from atop the Eastern Conference standings. In the 91 days since, they’ve also managed a four-game winless streak (0-3-1, Dec. 21-Dec. 30) and a four-game losing streak (Jan. 4-Jan. 11).

The current five-game streak dates back to a 4-1 loss in Ottawa on Jan. 31. They’ve also lost seven of their last eight games. A somehow even way more damning stat – the Devils have not held a lead in regulation since Jan.25, when Dougie Hamilton opened the scoring in a loss to Seattle.

Thursday marked the seventh straight game the Devils fell behind 1-0. This time it was Pittsburgh’s previously sputtering power play – the Penguins were on an 0-for-10 drought coming in – that dumped the Devils in a 1-0 hole when Tommy Novak tipped a Kris Letang point shot past Markstrom with 1 minute 9 seconds to play in the first.

Cotter, who hadn’t had a point in 23 games dating back to Dec. 13, got the Devils even at 4:56 of the second.

For some reason, the Penguins decided to challenge the play for goalie interference. This gave the Devils their second power play of the period and a chance to take the lead, but the Devils couldn’t capitalize on the delay of game, or slashing and interference minors to Avery Hayes and Letang later in the period.

Pittsburgh would get goals from Jersey native Connor Clifton and Egor Chinakhov 50 seconds apart early in the third to put the game out of reach. Clifton roofed a slap shot from the right circle over Markstrom at 6:30 and Evgeni Malkin found Chinakhov snuck behind Brett Pesce and Jonathan Kovacevic at 7:20.

Blake Lizotte would pick off a Hamilton pass and score into the empty net at 18:01 to seal the win.

Up Next

The Devils will try to avoid a six-game losing streak when they travel to St. Louis and face the Blues at 5 p.m., Saturday. The Blues are somehow even worse than the Devils. St. Louis (21-28-9) is 30th out of 32 teams. The Blues are 2-7-1 in their last 10. They beat the Seattle Kraken 5-1 Thursday night on a Dylan Holloway hat trick. Holloway had a four-point night.

Your Thoughts

They’re pretty much daring GM Tom Fitzgerald to fire head coach Sheldon Keefe at this point right? Or ownership to fire Fitzgerald and Keefe? Or something? Anything? This has to be close to the absolute nadir in team history. Not even being hyperbolic. There’s the 96 choke job and Tom Chorske’s giant middle finger to Lou and Lemaire, and then. …. That Game 7 collapse to Carolina is up there. This may not be that level of awful, but it’s still horrifying. These guys have completely up and quit, every last one of them. The core guys, who are supposed to be leaders, are just so checked out. I know that at this point they’re better off losing out, picking Gavin McKenna, and starting over next year, but how can this be allowed to continue? . … It’s not just me, is it?

NEW YORK (AP) — Matvei Michkov scored his second goal of the game 2:10 into overtime and Samuel Ersson made 23 saves as the Philadelphia Flyers rallied to beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night.

Michkov beat Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin for his 15th goal of the season after the Rangers failed to score on a power play to start the extra period.

Trevor Zegras also scored for the Flyers, who trailed 2-0 early in the second period before rallying for their second win since Jan. 23.

Sam Carrick and Alexis Lafreniere scored for New York, which lost its fifth straight game. Shesterkin, who suffered a lower-body injury in a home loss to Utah on Jan. 5, made 21 saves in his return. The Rangers are 6-15-5 at home this season.

Carrick opened the scoring at 9:56 of the first, beating Ersson with a shot from long range for his fourth goal. Lafreniere’s 13th of the season made it 2-0 at 1:23 of the second.

Michkov scored on the power play at 10:25 of the second, cutting the Flyers’ deficit to 2-1. Zegras scored 39 seconds into the third to tie the game at 2.

Defenseman Adam Fox returned to the lineup for the Rangers.

New York traded top scorer Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 4 and additional trades could come ahead of the March 6 trade deadline. The Rangers are 2-11-2 since winning the Winter Classic on Jan. 2 in Miami.

The Flyers, who lost 3-1 at Washington on Wednesday, have also tumbled in the standings. Philadelphia is 4-9-4 since Jan. 6.

Before the game, the Rangers honored Olympic gold medal-winning players J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, along with head coach Mike Sullivan, assistant coach David Quinn and general manager Chris Drury, the assistant GM of the U.S. Olympic team in Milan.

Drury was loudly booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd.

Up next

Flyers: Host Boston on Saturday.

Rangers: Host Pittsburgh on Saturday.

For 40 minutes, it looked like a reprieve for the Rangers, the rare night when they could temporarily escape their reality — the cellar of the Eastern Conference — of a lost season, encounter some glimmers of hope and snag a rare home win in regulation.

Even when they blew a two-goal lead, the Blueshirts still started overtime with nearly a full power play.

But with this edition of the Blueshirts, not even that can go right. They watched as Matvei Michkov scored the winner 2:10 into overtime with a gassed power-play unit stuck on the ice, falling 3-2 to the Flyers on Thursday to spoil the returns of defenseman Adam Fox and goaltender Igor Shesterkin from injuries and the returns of J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck from Team USA’s gold medal trip.

The resumption of their season following the Olympic break ended with the Blueshirts (22-29-7) opening a four-game homestand on a sour note.

“They just didn’t have any juice,” Sullivan said of Fox, Mika Zibanejad, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, who were all on the ice for the entire extra frame.

But until it all fell apart, just about everything went right for the Rangers. The night all started with the returns of Shesterkin and Fox, who both took their spots in the lineup for the first time since Jan. 5.

Trocheck and Miller were honored pregame for their gold medal, along with head coach Mike Sullivan (USA head coach), assistant coach David Quinn (USA assistant) and president and general manager Chris Drury (assistant GM) — who was greeted with nothing but boos given the current state of the Rangers team he’s directly responsible for.

Shesterkin, at times, looked like his vintage self. Fox manned his spot on the power play and with the top defensive pairing, though Sullivan said they’re still “capable of another level.”

For Fox, it marked just his fourth game since Nov. 29, as his brief return from a shoulder injury was followed almost immediately by a stint on long-term injured reserve for a lower-body injury. He felt “a little helpless” just watching as The Letter 2.0 — when Drury signaled a retool — dropped and he couldn’t do anything.

“[Fox has] missed a lot of hockey, so it’s gonna take him some time to get into the game speed, the game timing, things of that nature,” Sullivan said. “He’s missed so much time. I would anticipate Foxy getting better with each game that he plays.”

Even with the Rangers’ stars acclimating, they still took a 2-0 lead behind unlikely contributors. Fourth-line center Sam Carrick flung a puck from the boards that somehow got past Samuel Ersson for the Blueshirts’ first goal — and his fourth of the season — midway through the third period.

Alexis Lafrenière, in the middle of another disappointing season with his name swirling in trade rumors, scored 1:23 into the second period too.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND RANGERS STATS

Shesterkin, until allowing the trio of goals across the final two-plus frames, turned aside shot after shot, including some tricky rebounds.

Three minutes into the second, Carl Grundstrom and Jamie Drysdale had chances that Shesterkin stopped, and another Flyers shot went wide. When Owen Tippett’s shot gave Noah Cates an open lane from the right side, Shesterkin managed to knock the puck away with his glove.

Eventually, Michkov scored his first tally on the power play later in the frame, Trevor Zegras tied it just 39 seconds into the third and Michkov won it with his second after the Blueshirts failed to capitalize with the man-advantage for the third time Thursday.

The Rangers had a chance to push all of their pressing issues aside for another day.

They had a chance to make sure a celebratory night at the Garden ended that way when fans spilled out the exits and onto the streets.

They had a chance to forget that their roster might look entirely different a week from now when the March 6 trade deadline arrives, to still emerge with a win even as young players — such as Noah Laba and Brennan Othmann — received extra chances with the penalty kill because Sullivan wanted “to see what they’re capable of” while using Zibanejad, Miller and Trocheck less in those spots.

That, as much as the Artemi Panarin trade and The Letter 2.0, is a clear sign of a retool.

Instead, by the time overtime ended, their season-long problems had come right back into focus.

Ryan O'Reilly's 21st goal of the season in the final five minutes of the game elevated the Nashville Predators to a 4-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.

It was the Predators' first game since the pause for the Winter Olympics and their first since Feb. 5. The win also puts Nashville just two points outside the final Wild Card spot in the West. 

With 3:15 left in the third period, O'Reilly got a feed from Roman Josi from behind the net and put a soft, quick wrist shot on net that beat goalie Spencer Knight five-hole. 

Steven Stamkos added an empty net goal in the final minute to ice the game. 

Filip Forsberg opened up the scoring, finding the back of the net off a steal along the boards and a wrist shot from the right face-off dot to make it 1-0 in the first period.

It was the first time the Predators had scored the first goal of a game since Jan. 24 against the Utah Mammoth.

Factor on the doorstep 💥 pic.twitter.com/HiOOg1Hgtz

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) February 27, 2026

Connor Bedard responded for Chicago early in the second to tie things up. In the early third, Adam Wilsby was called for a delay of the game, and Tyler Bertuzzi scored to give the Blackhawks their first lead of the night. 

Later in the period, Nick Foligno was called for interference to put Nashville on the power play. Matthew Wood found the back of the net from the left side of the slot to tie the game up at two. 

Justus Annunen picked up the win, making 21 saves on 23 shots for his fifth win of the season. 

The Predators struggled to stay out of the box, logging 12 penalty minutes to the Blackhawks' four, but went 4-of-5 on the penalty kill. 

Nashville heads on the road on Saturday to face the Dallas Stars at 7 p.m. CST. The Stars defeated the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, 4-1, in their first game since the pause and have won seven straight. 

The 2026 NHL Trade Deadline is only a little more than a week away. Despite the NHL just returning to play on Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks have made themselves a large presence in the trade market, namely due to rumours surrounding defenceman Tyler Myers’ future with the team. 

Last night, during a 3–2 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Myers was made a healthy-scratch due to roster management reasons. As today has progressed, more has come out about the situation with the veteran defenceman, with Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford speaking on it during an interview with the 100% Hockey podcast. 

“We do have an offer for him. We’re working through that process now, and we’ll see where it goes. Nothing’s final at this point,” Rutherford told podcast hosts John Shannon and Daren Millard. “It was just being cautious last night. You don’t want a player to play in a game and get injured when potentially something might happen.” 

The thing that has complicated a potential Myers trade is the fact that the defenceman’s contract currently has a no-movement clause, meaning he controls whether he’s traded or not and where-to if that’s the case. This clause shifts to a 12-team no-trade list next year, which would give Vancouver more control over where the defenceman goes if he remains with the team and if they still want to trade him. 

“It’s a little bit of everything. It’s just the process. Patrik’s the one that’s doing this, and I got an update earlier this morning, and everybody’s trying to work together to see if something works.”

The course of the current season has been difficult for the Canucks and their fans, as Vancouver has sat comfortably at the bottom of the NHL’s standings for at least a couple of months now. They’ve already made two big moves throughout the season, trading captain Quinn Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood, and while many expect that they’ll be busy in the lead-up to the deadline, Rutherford warned that there’s a chance this may not be the case. 

“We’ll be as active as possible if, in fact, something makes sense for our return. We’re not out looking to just give away players. I don’t know how many younger players, mid 20s to younger, that are going to be available that we could acquire, but we’re going to look at all possibilities, sticking to that plan of staying younger, getting a group together that can come together over the next couple of years as a team and start to get in a position that we should be in, but at this point in time, the market is very slow. Patrik does the deals, he talks to the GMs, but talking to a couple of other people that hold the same position as me, they are surprised too, how slow the market’s moving. So it may end up that it’s a slower deadline because of some of the rule changes and how teams have to approach things going forward for the playoffs, or maybe it’s just going to open up here next week, getting closer to the deadline.” 

Regardless of what happens in the next couple of weeks, the trade deadline will play a big role in how Vancouver approaches their future moving forward. This includes the 2026 NHL Draft, in which the Canucks are expected to make their first selection relatively high-up. 

“I think it starts here with the next week, and I can give you that answer a lot better after we get past the trade deadline, but we’re going to acquire as many young assets as possible, and that’s probably more in line with being draft picks, position ourselves as strong as we can going into the draft and going into the off-season of free agency, and continue to let the young players play, live with them adjusting to a very tough league. I think that the young guys we have now are doing a really good job, especially young defencemen that are playing as much as they are and doing as well as they are, and they’ll just get better and better, and we’ll look forward to the draft and free agency to see the changes that need to be made so we can start to progress in the right direction next year and build this team up over the next couple of years.”

With the things that have occurred with the Canucks throughout the season, it’s likely felt as though every player’s name has been mentioned in some sort of trade rumour. While things have shifted throughout the season, Rutherford did clarify that there are some members of the team that they won’t field calls on regarding trade interest. However, he also added that “the list is relatively short” and would not give an inkling of which players could be on it. 

Something that may make acquiring players hard, particularly in free agency, is the desire to play in Vancouver, according to Rutherford. The President of Hockey Operations spoke on what the demographic of players who have typically wanted to play in Vancouver look like, with the focus primarily being on those who are from western Canada in particular. 

“I think you’re seeing a trend where the majority of players want to play in the US, but there are players who want to come to Vancouver, and they like the organization. We treat players extremely well here. They like the passion of the market, and they like the city. So we will have a chance to get free agents. It may not be the top guy that everybody will want us to get, that we would probably try to get, but what we need to do now is get as many young players in here and get established that this is a young group that’s going to grow together and want to be here for a long time — that’s our priority right now. 

“We would love to have more Canadian players. So make that very clear. But if there’s a player from whatever country in the world [who] can come and contribute to the Vancouver Canucks, we’re going after that player. But at this point in time, when I look at our team, I’d like to see us have more Canadian players on it.” 

The NHL Trade Deadline takes place on March 6 at 12:00 pm PT. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.

Latest From THN’s Vancouver Canucks Site: 

Canucks Jim Rutherford Gives Injury Updates On Thatcher Demko & Filip Chytil

Canucks Trading Tyler Myers Has Turned Into A Matter Of When, Not If

Canucks Dice & Ice Player Basket Auction Includes A Nintendo Switch Lite, Demko’s Vinyl Collection, And A Signed Pair Of Olympic Skates

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.