This week may be the NHL draft, but it’s also the week when trade rumors abound.  After all, aside from the trade deadline, this is when most trades take place.

High-cap teams are looking to shed salary before the UFA market begins. Teams know exactly where their draft picks are and how much value each pick has. Rebuilding teams can get rid of an older player before the draft to prove to the fans they are serious about rebuilding.

Of course, all of this has a significant impact on your fantasy team. A player’s value may increase simply based on the rumors, as many of us want to believe that the player we have on our roster is going to be sent to a contender. If the trade takes place, the player’s value could increase or decrease dramatically depending on where he lines up on his new squad.

Last year saw a crazy number of players traded in the weeks leading up to last year’s draft and through the two-day event. We saw Sam Reinhart go to the Panthers, Pavel Buchnevich to the Blues, Shayne Gostisbehere to the Coyotes, Alex Nedeljkovic to the Red Wings, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Connor Garland to the Canucks, Rasmus Ristolainen to the Flyers, Ryan Ellis to the Flyers, Seth Jones to the Hawks, Duncan Keith go to the Oilers, Cam Atkinson to the Flyers and Jakub Voracek to the Blue Jackets. Those few weeks changed a lot of outlooks for a lot of players.

Below are the top 10 players who are rumored to be on the trade block who will see their fantasy importance change if dealt. We won’t get into the actual value, because it does depend on the team, system and linemates on the new squad.

As a quick note, for all your draft needs, you can check out Dobber Prospects and Dobber Fantasy Hockey Prospects guide (which you can purchase here).

10. Tyson Barrie

The biggest impact of a Barrie trade wouldn’t be Barrie on a new team, but instead, it would be the impact on Evan Bouchard. In his first full season, Bouchard had 43 points in 81 games to go along with 205 shots, 80 hits, 112 blocked shots and seven power-play points, while only averaging 1:20 per night with the man advantage. The 22-year-old Bouchard seems poised to take over as the team’s number one offensive defenseman, but Barrie is standing in the way. Barrie had 41 points in 73 games to go along with 149 shots, 27 hits, 73 blocked shots and 21 power-play points while averaging 2:51 per night with the man advantage. He’s owed only $4.5 million in each of the next two seasons, so it’s not an onerous contract to deal.

9. John Gibson

There has been plenty of contradicting information coming out of Anaheim over the last few weeks. There were rumours that Gibson was open to a trade, but both he and the team have denied it. Despite that, there has still been plenty of rumors regarding Gibson. It would be interesting to see if Gibson continues his penchant for strong starts and awful finishes with a new team. This year, Gibson started with a 9-2-2 record with a 2.33 GAA, a 0.925 SV% and one shutout. After that, he was 9-24-9 with a 3.47 GAA, a 0.898 SV% and zero shutouts. He would be considered to be one of the biggest goalie names on the trade market, but his fantasy numbers have been poor for four straight seasons.

8. Jesse Puljujarvi

Two weeks ago, Puljujarvi made my list of top 10 interesting restricted free agents, but there were a couple of key points that still ring true: This past season, he had 25 points in 36 games playing alongside Connor McDavid but was on the second power-play unit. His ice time and production dropped once Evander Kane was signed, but you hope he can reach his breakout threshold when he hits 400 games (he's at 259 now, so he's still a couple of seasons away). Since that column, I’ve been reading more about Puljujarvi, and there’s one thing that seems to hold: He is a solid player that had trouble finishing scoring chances. That’s something a new team will hope he can figure out quickly, but should be patient enough to wait another few seasons if need be.

7. Jeff Petry

Petry’s overall numbers this past season didn’t seem that great, but the overall numbers don’t paint the whole picture. Petry, like almost every other Hab, was awful under head coach Dominique Ducharme. Switching to Martin St. Louis was almost like finding a flower in the original Super Mario Bros. video game; it gave Petry a power-up boost that lasted the rest of the season. Look at Petry’s time this year between the two coaches:

Ducharme: 38 games, one goal, six points, minus-11, 20 PIM, 54 shots, 83 hits, 43 blocked shots, one power-play point

St. Louis: 30 games, five goals, 21 points, plus/minus zero, 16 PIM, 70 shots, 57 hits, 74 blocked shots, two power-play points

Before this season, Petry had four straight years where he posted an 82-game pace of at least 42 points (including an 82-game pace of 63 points in a 56-game season a year ago), and he hit double digits in power-play points in four straight seasons.

6. Blake Wheeler

In five of the last seven seasons, Wheeler has put up an 82-game pace of between 74 and 78 points, with two seasons reaching the 90-point mark. So it all comes down to expectations for fantasy general managers. Those who were expecting 90 points this year may have been too optimistic. This season, Wheeler had 60 points in 65 games to go along with 167 shots, 62 hits and 20 power-play points. There’s been talk that the Jets locker room has been split, and Wheeler’s contract of $8.25 million in each of the next two seasons might be a little high. But if the Jets are willing to eat a little bit of the contract, then a trade should be palatable to several teams.

5. Sergei Bobrovsky

Nick Kypreos recently reported that the Panthers are shopping Bobrovsky, and are willing to retain as much as 50 per cent of his salary. That would make the two-time Vezina trophy winner a lot more attractive as a team would only wind up paying him $5 million instead of $10 million. The 33-year-old still has four seasons left on his contract, but he also has a full no-move clause, so he would need to approve any trade. Bobrovsky’s contract is front-loaded, so he’s already been paid $35.5 million, and another $6 million is due to be paid early this summer as a signing bonus. Bobrovsky put up a league-high 39 wins this past season, but a good chunk of that can be chalked up to playing behind the highest-scoring team since 1995-96.

4. Jakob Chychrun

Chychrun’s name has been on the trade block for a while, but it always amazes me that the Coyotes would be willing to trade him away. Sure, he had a poor season this past year, but he had 41 points in 56 games during the covid-shortened season. He averages three shots per game and more than a hit and 1.5 blocked shots per contest. He also has three years left on his current contract which gives him an annual cap hit of $4.6 million a year. Because of his size, he still hasn’t reached his 400-game breakout threshold yet (he’s at 337 games, so he’s still a season away from hitting that mark).

3. Patrick Kane

Kane just had his worst 82-game pace of points in four seasons, but that 82-game pace still equated to 96 points. Kane quietly notched 91 points in 78 games while adding 287 shots and 31 power-play points. It seems crazy that someone like Kane could be available, but the rumours are the Hawks want to do a full rebuild (about a year too late after trading for Marc-Andre Fleury and Seth Jones a year ago). Kane is making $10 million a year, but has only one year left on his deal. It might make sense for the Blackhawks to trade him this week before free agency hits and teams have less cap space.

2. J.T. Miller

The Canucks forward is a year away from unrestricted free agency, and rumours have it that he plans on going to market. Whoever trades for him might only get a year of service. How underrated has Miller been with the Canucks? In his last three seasons, Miller has 217 points, which is the 12th highest in that period. It also puts him ahead of guys like Matthew Tkachuk, Kyle Connor, Mika Zibanejad and Aleksander Barkov. Miller just put together one of the best fantasy seasons of the year, finishing with 32 goals, 99 points, plus-14, 47 PIM, 206 shots, 172 hits and 38 power-play points. 56 blocked shots and 666 faceoff wins. No matter what categories your fantasy league included, Miller contributed. He was the only player to finish with at least 30 goals, 50 assists, 200 shots and 150 hits.

1. Alex Debrincat

In his five-year career, Debrincat has scored 160 goals, good for an average of 32 per year. Those 160 goals are tied for the ninth-highest in that time, which is pretty impressive considering he had a down season of 18 goals in 2019-20. He has twice hit 41 goals in a season, and had 32 in 52 a year ago. This past season, he averaged 3.3 shots per game while finishing with 101 hits, 14 power-play goals and 28 power-play points. Rumors are that the Blackhawks are asking for the moon for Debrincat, which they should be considering he’s 24 years old and is one of the best goal scorers in the league.