While many of you are still gunning for a championship, there are a few who have already waved the white flag on any hopes for a title this year.

However, that doesn’t mean your season is finished. After all, you have to work on rebuilding your squad for next year. Depending on the makeup of your team, this could be a long-term rebuild or a quick retool for next season.

You would be smart to create a bidding war among contending teams for any overachieving players you might have. This will help you in your rebuild.

But you need to trade your players while they are still performing excellently. Below are 10 players who are mostly having career years you should be looking to deal. This goes with the obvious caveat that you shouldn’t be trading them away for the sake of trading. If you can’t get a fair offer, hold on to them.

We’re going to be looking at mostly older players. Patrik Laine may be having a career year and you might get a lot in return, but I can’t recommend a rebuilding team trading away a 23-year-old sniper.

Of course, for those of you who are contending, these are some of the players you should be targeting. Even though they may cost a pretty penny, they would be cheaper to acquire than someone 10 years younger scoring at the same pace.

10. Tyler Bertuzzi

Bertuzzi has shown improvement each season when it comes to points-per-game (although last season was an extremely small sample size since he only played nine games due to a back injury). He had a slow stretch in November with three points in 11 games, but aside from that, he’s been dynamite. He has 47 points in 48 games and has a point in each of his last three games. He’s 27 years old and is a UFA in a year. He may never top a point-per-game pace, but it will depend on where he winds up in a year. If you’re going to deal him, you want to do it either quickly, or wait a couple of weeks. Six of Detroit’s final 26 games are in Canada (with three in a row starting on Saturday), and Bertuzzi still can’t play in Canada as he is unvaccinated.

9. Matt Duchene

Everyone has to be shocked by Duchene’s season, as he usually only produces in a contract year. A year ago, he had a measly 13 points in 34 games, which is an 82-game pace of 31 points. You were probably laughed at if you tried trading him last offseason. Who would want him? This season, his ice time is way up, his power-play production will finish as a career-high at this rate and his shots-per-game rate has risen significantly. You won’t get laughed at if you try to trade him now, so you’re better off offloading the 31-year-old as soon as you get a decent offer.

8. Evgeny Kuznetsov

Kuznetsov’s great season can be linked to the resurgence of Alexander Ovechkin. For team goals where each player has picked up a point, Kuznetsov and Ovi have 30. That’s the ninth-highest heading into Sunday’s action. Overall, Kuznetsov’s 52 points in 54 games put him on pace for 79 points over 82 games. This is a major improvement for a player who had a 58-point pace a year ago and looked to be dealt from the Capitals’ organization a summer ago. Now that his value has skyrocketed, the Caps may be able to get more in return if they trade him this offseason. Regardless of if he returns to Washington next year or not, Kuznetsov hasn’t been able to show season-to-season consistency, which makes him a perfect sell-high.

7. Darcy Kuemper

This is a risk/reward type of trade. The 31-year-old Kuemper is having his best-ever season. He’s already tied a career-high in wins. He has also already played the second-most games of his career. And that’s the issue with Kuemper. You can’t trust him to stay healthy. He could get injured at any point, miss the rest of the season and no one would be surprised. In fact, when I heard the news Saturday night that he was replaced by Pavel Francouz 1:27 into the second period, I immediately thought it was injury-related. Kuemper is another player who will be a UFA this offseason, so he may wind up on a much worse team next year. Colorado has shown they are not worried about losing their number one netminder to free agency (see Phillip Grubauer a season ago).

6. Johnny Gaudreau

One of the common themes in this list (although coincidental) is the number of players who are performing way above their normal means and will be a free agent this summer. You could also add Andrew Mangiapane to this list. Gaudreau has 71 points in 54 games, which puts him on pace for 108 points. He’s had a season where he put up 99 points, but these seasons are the exceptions, not the norm. He’s more of a 70-point player, so any long-term improvement you might be able to get in a trade is a deal you have to make.

5. Joe Pavelski

That’s right, I’m advocating for you trading the ageless wonder. If you’re a team that is out of it in a keeper league and you can trade Pavelski, you need to jump at the opportunity. Last season Pavelski started hot and cooled down as the season went along, but still finished at a 75-point pace. This year has been even better, as he’s on pace for 88 points, which would be a career-high. The guy will be 38 years old when the next NHL season kicks off. He should not be on your rebuilding team, and you might not get many more opportunities to see high.

4. Mats Zuccarello

The Wild forward was a bit underrated last season, as he had 35 points in 42 games. That is an 82-game equivalent of 68 points, which matched a career-high for an 82-game pace. However, he’s been unbelievable this season with 56 points in 46 games. That’s an 82-game pace of 100 points. It helps that his ice time is up more than two minutes a night over last season, and his 19 power-play points are already a career-high. His 56 points are only five off from his career-high. He has excellent chemistry with Kirill Kaprizov, but you shouldn’t be banking on the 34-year-old to have too many more 100-point-pace seasons.

3. Kris Letang

It is difficult to get full value for Letang since everyone knows about his injury history. But with 49 points already, he’s on pace for 76, which is his third-highest 82-game pace of his career. He’s a beast in roto and head-to-head leagues as he will also post plenty of PIM, shots, hits and blocked shots. He’s two power-play points away from posting 20 power-play points for the fourth time of his career. If you are looking to trade Letang, you’d be wise to do it as quickly as possible before he winds up on the IR again.

2. Chris Kreider

Kreider, who will turn 31 years old next month, is having a crazy season. His 38 goals already top his previous career high by 10 goals, and there are still 26 games left in the campaign. His 53 points match his career high, and he’s on pace for 78. His 25 power-play points destroy his previous high of 14. His 3.3 shots per game are the most he’s ever posted and he’s also getting a career high in ice time. His shooting percentage of 19.9 per cent seems high, but last year he shot 19.6 per cent and the year before 15.4 per cent. He’s turned it up in every single facet of his game.

1. Nazem Kadri

There are a lot of red flags when it comes to Kadri’s ability to repeat this year’s production in future years, so you need to sell while he’s performing at an elite level. He’s 31 years old and will be 32 when the next season starts. Unless he’s a late bloomer like Brad Marchand, you can’t expect this type of sustained success for years (but Marchand was 28 years old in his breakout year). Kadri’s previous high was a 75-point pace in 2012-13. He’s hit a 60-point pace just once. Now he’s on pace for 108. He will become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and he may wind up on a different squad next year. He won’t be able to replicate this kind of success on most other teams.