Kaplan’s latest buzz: Goalie market, what Penguins and Capitals will do among hot topics
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Emily Kaplan, ESPN
We’re two weeks away from the NHL trade deadline, which means conversations are dialed up and trades can happen at any moment. Here’s the latest on what I’m hearing on discussions going on around the league.
THE GOALIE MARKET is simmering, though I still don’t think all of the goalie-needy teams are going to end up with goaltending insurance at the deadline. For example, the Oilers seem comfortable riding it out with Stuart Skinner, shifting their focus to impact forwards and defensemen. The Montreal Canadiens seem poised to move Jake Allen. I’ve heard the Nashville Predators could trade Juuse Saros. The time to strike on a Saros deal might be now, as top Preds prospect Yaroslav Askarov is tearing it up in the AHL (.920 save percentage, 2.12 GAA and 4 shutouts in 27 games).
A Jacob Markstrom-to-New Jersey deal got so close, I’m told Markstrom didn’t think he’d leave the area when the Flames were on a New York/New Jersey road trip earlier this month. It fell through, but I think the Devils are still aggressively looking at options, and Saros could be one of them. GM Tom Fitzgerald has full power from ownership to do anything he can to make the team better. Goaltending is the obvious need, even though 23-year-old Nico Daws has helped stabilize the situation lately. But an impact defenseman is also key as the Devils are vulnerable and inexperienced without top blueliner Dougie Hamilton.
The goalie everyone is curious about is Marc-Andre Fleury. Right now, he’s not on the market. If there’s any realistic chance of the Wild making the playoffs at the trade deadline, Fleury isn’t going anywhere. Fleury and Wild GM Bill Guerin are extremely close, having won a Stanley Cup together as teammates in Pittsburgh. Guerin is going to do right by Fleury, and both of them want it to work out in Minnesota. But if the Wild are hopelessly out of the race — say, 12, 13 points out of a spot — the conversation changes. Fleury has not missed the playoffs in any of his 17 NHL seasons, a streak he takes pride in. Fleury is a fierce competitor and wants to win again. But he also wants to play, so it would have to be the exact right situation for him to agree to a deal. I’m told he’s not going anywhere to be a cheerleader and sit as the designated backup. Fleury wants starts. We’ll see how it shakes out, but it sounds like it would take an exact set of dominos to fall for Fleury to finish out the season in another jersey.
STEVE YZERMAN IS perhaps the most secretive general manager in the league. He won’t even publicly (and for all I know privately) put a timeframe on the Red Wings’ rebuild. However, in talking to sources around the league, it sounds like Yzerman is focused on making the playoffs this season, capitalizing on a strong first half.
Coach Derek Lalonde had told me what a gut punch it was for the players at this time last season when management decided yet again to collect for the future, trading away Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek, Oskar Sundqvist and Jakub Vrana. I was surprised, then, a few weeks ago when I heard that David Perron, a pending UFA and an emotional leader in the locker room, was potentially on the move. I do think there were legitimate discussions about trading Perron, but they have since quieted. In fact, I believe a contract extension for Perron could be in play either right before or after the March 8 deadline. If it doesn’t get done, don’t be surprised if they re-engage over the summer on a potential new contract in Detroit. That said, Yzerman has been listening to offers on his defensemen
THE PANTHERS HAVE emerged as the best team in the Eastern Conference. The players have bought into Paul Maurice’s structure — which is demanding, both physically and mentally, but tough as heck for other teams to crack.
Credit Florida’s pro-scouting staff for finding so much talent (Carter Verhaeghe, Anthony Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov, Evan Rodrigues and Gustav Forsling are all shining examples) and a steady resurgence from Sergei Bobrovsky, who has thrived under the team’s robust goaltending coaching department.
Do they get better at the trade deadline? When I talked to GM Bill Zito this week, he told me the team is in a different place than the past two seasons. In 2021, when they made splashes for Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot, it was “vital to the franchise” to win a playoff round. Last season was about keeping that progress and momentum going. Now, fresh off a Stanley Cup Final appearance, the Panthers would still like to add — and have a healthy $5 million cap space to do so. But Florida feels it has to find more talented players in lower rounds because they don’t want to empty what’s becoming a bare cabinet of assets. The Panthers don’t have a first-round pick until 2026, and are without their second-round pick this year too. Things can change with one phone call, especially when it gets closer to March 8, and Florida isn’t opposed to adding either forward or defense depth.
ONE OF THE stealth teams every year at the trade deadline is the Tampa Bay Lightning. GM Julien BriseBois always seems to have some tricks up his sleeve. Tampa Bay is right in the mix for a playoff spot in the East.
They’ve been trading away future assets for Cup chases the last several years. This season, they’ve dealt with the injury bug. But in some ways, it’s been a positive because they can test out their young players and European free agents. Last season, Tampa Bay only made one call-up at forward for one game all season. I’ve heard they are considering adding a forward at the deadline. But the most glaring need is defense, which is especially thin with the loss of Mikhail Sergachev (fractured tibia and fibula) for the regular season. BriseBois confirmed Sergachev has a chance to return if the team makes a long playoff run. He told me Sergachev’s loss doesn’t change their objective — Tampa Bay was already on the lookout for deadline improvements. There’s been a lot of smoke around the league that the Lightning are the likeliest destination for Calgary defenseman Noah Hanifin, who wants a chance to play in the United States. He makes a lot of sense there, but we’ll see how it shakes out.
WHEN I TALKED to Caps GM Brian MacLellan earlier this month, he told me he was going to determine soon whether his team would be looking to trade players at the deadline. The decision would be dictated by the team’s position in the muddy wild-card race. “At some point,” he said, “the math just doesn’t add up.”
Most people I talk to around the league believe Washington will try to unload some contracts to position better for the future. MacLellan said he is balancing doing right by legacy players — specifically captain Alex Ovechkin and his quest for the NHL all-time goal record — while trying to stay competitive and get younger. It’s a delicate tightrope. Nic Dowd and Joel Edmundson are two players I heard were drawing league-wide interest. I believe Anthony Mantha is getting some interest based on a strong season, too. I also believe there is a distinct possibility Max Pacioretty could be traded.
Pacioretty signed a one-year, bonus-laden deal in Washington after coming off his second Achilles surgery. Considering all the 35-year-old went through to come back — he literally traveled the world searching for solutions — idling on a non-contending team for the last two months isn’t ideal. In his 16-year career, Pacioretty has never won a Stanley Cup, and he knows his time is ticking. He was traded away from Vegas the year before they hoisted the Cup. Pacioretty’s deal has a full no-movement clause — a rarity for Washington. Ovechkin is the only other player on the roster with that protection. That means he has full control of his situation. If Pacioretty moves, it would be for a situation where he feels like he has a serious chance to win. Geography is also important for Pacioretty and his family.
MACLELLAN REMARKED HOW similar the situations were for his team and its biggest rivals over the last decade, the Pittsburgh Penguins. GM Kyle Dubas held a news conference this week laying out the Penguins’ situation. Dubas said the team’s middling performance, especially since the All-Star break, has him looking at ways to shake up the roster.
“Everything that we do will be with the intention of delivering a championship contender for the team without [Sidney Crosby and the core veteran players] having to go through years of pain to get there,” Dubas said. “That’s my commitment.”
Interest in Jake Guentzel around the league hasn’t waned at all, despite him being on injured reserve through the March 8 deadline. It still seems likely Guentzel is on the move. I’ve heard the asking price on Guentzel is multiple first-round picks (or a first-round pick and equivalent in top prospects or roster players). One rival executive said “the Guentzel asking price is ridiculous.”
The Penguins have made it clear that all non-core players on their roster could be available — and not just looking for future assets, but hockey trades too (though those are typically easier over the summer). Veteran Reilly Smith hasn’t had the smoothest transition in Pittsburgh, but there’s increasing league-wide interest in the veteran forward, who won a Stanley Cup last season with the Golden Knights. Two of Smith’s former teams, Vegas and Florida, could be fits — as could the Hurricanes.
TWO TEAMS THAT are talking about various players right now are the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche. The Canes have 13 players on their roster who are due for new contracts this summer. Given the way Carolina operates — they put a value on players that is often different than anyone else’s value, and they stick to it — it’s not surprising that they’ve tried to move some of these players for “hockey trades.” The Canes, who have nearly $7 million in deadline cap space, really seem open to anything, and it would be shocking to see them do nothing at all at the deadline. It sounds like their emphasis has been on adding forwards though.
The Avs have been clear that they need some goalie help as All-Star Alexandar Georgiev has seen a heavy workload. But I believe they’ve been making calls on centers too, and are in the mix for some defensemen, like Calgary’s Chris Tanev.
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Jorge Castillo
SIX MONTHS AGO, just seven games into the 2025 season, the Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Queens with uncertainty hovering over Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s future. New York Mets fans, hopeful that their team could eventually land the impending free agent and partner him with Juan Soto, welcomed the first baseman with notably loud cheers at Citi Field to open the weekend series. Guerrero and the Blue Jays had failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension before an arbitrary mid-February deadline, and the drama would not die.
Then, suddenly, it did, hours after the Mets completed a weekend sweep. The deal was historic: 14 years, $500 million without deferrals, the third-largest contract in Major League Baseball history. The Canadian-born Guerrero, signed out of the Dominican Republic as a 16-year-old with a famous name, would be a Blue Jay for life. Guerrero bet on himself by turning down smaller offers and bet on the Blue Jays by agreeing not to test free agency. And the Blue Jays bet on the homegrown star at a massive price, having whiffed on other marquee talents in recent years. The impact was instant.
“We didn’t start playing our best baseball until May,” Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer said. “But if that didn’t get settled, it would be this cloud hanging over our season the whole time. The fact that that was resolved just kind of settled everything down. The outside attention is resolved. It’s no longer, ‘What’s going to happen here?’ It kind of took the elephant out of the room.”
Guerrero, 26, responded with his fifth All-Star season, batting .292 with 23 home runs and an .848 OPS in 156 games. His play, coupled with rebound seasons from George Springer and Bo Bichette and a deep roster of contributors, fueled the Blue Jays’ ascension from 74 wins and last place in 2024 to 94 wins, an American League East title and, now, Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
The Blue Jays can point to a few possible turning points on their way to a fourth playoff appearance in six years. There was a three-game sweep in Seattle in early May. There was Bichette’s pinch-hit, go-ahead home run in the ninth inning in Texas later that month. But Guerrero’s agreement a week into the season helped pave the way to where the Blue Jays find themselves Wednesday: four wins shy of their first World Series appearance in 32 years.
Down 2-0 after the Mariners dominated the first two games in Toronto, it’s no easy feat. But the goal Guerrero has set for himself hasn’t changed.
“For me my goal always is to win a World Series, to bring the World Series here,” Guerrero said earlier this postseason. “My father, he never had the chance to win a World Series. That’s one of my goals, always been one of my goals, to do that for me, for him.”
THE JOURNEY TO this breakout postseason for Guerrero and the Blue Jays began more than a decade ago. In January 2015, months before Guerrero was eligible to sign as an international free agent, Edwin Encarnación received a call from Alex Anthopoulos, then Toronto’s general manager: The Blue Jays wanted to see a 15-year-old Guerrero, their top target that year, work out again in the Dominican Republic — and they needed to find a ballpark.
Encarnación, coming off an All-Star season for Toronto in 2014, reached out to his contacts and a workout was arranged to have Guerrero face older free agents from Cuba. With Encarnación and Blue Jays officials, including Anthopoulos and international scouting director Ismael Cruz looking on, Guerrero convinced the decision-makers.
“It was something special,” Encarnación said in Spanish on the field at Rogers Centre on Monday before Game 2 of the ALCS. “Vladdy was better than the Cubans. This kid, at 15 years old, showed off against them. He was special.”
That July, the Blue Jays used their entire international bonus pool to sign Guerrero for $3.9 million. Worried about the hoopla that came with being the son of a future Hall of Famer, Anthopoulos asked the team’s media department to hold a low-key event when Guerrero, born in Montreal during his father’s time starring for the Expos, was brought to Toronto for the first time. No news conference at the podium. Just batting practice on the field.
“I was concerned with the last name, the hype and the expectations were going to be out of this world,” said Anthopoulos, now general manager of the Atlanta Braves. “And they were anyway, as much as we tried to play it down.”
Guerrero was not immune to the pressure upon arriving for his major league debut in 2019 as the top prospect across baseball at just 20 years old. The years that followed were not a linear progression. After an AL MVP runner-up season in which he clubbed 48 home runs with a 1.002 OPS in 2021, his first year as a full-time first baseman, Guerrero hit 58 home runs with an .804 OPS over the next two years. Then came another breakout last season: a .323/.396/.544 slash line with 30 home runs in 159 games to raise his value heading into his platform year.
“He’s not easily distracted,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “He’s still very human, and I think the hardest part, from my perspective and my view, that Vladdy’s had to deal with is the expectation. Not the distractions off the field or the attention. And he embraced the expectations.”
This year, the pressure was on Guerrero to finally perform to those expectations in the postseason. He entered the AL Division Series against the New York Yankees 3-for-22 with two walks, five strikeouts and no home runs in six career playoff games — all losses — spread over three separate wild-card series.
Guerrero quickly discarded that history in Game 1, swatting a solo home run in his first plate appearance of the postseason. In Game 2, he cracked a grand slam that will long be replayed on Rogers Centre highlight reels. He finished the series 9-for-17 with three home runs and nine RBIs as the Blue Jays eliminated New York in four games.
“I think he’s improved a lot in all aspects,” Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk said. “The experience, how he’s matured as a person. He’s no longer the 20-year-old Vladimir when he debuted. Now he’s Vladimir.”
VLADIMIR VASQUEZ WATCHED the Blue Jays close out the Yankees last Wednesday from his restaurant 5 miles north of Rogers Centre. Born in the Dominican Republic, Vasquez moved to Toronto when he was 11 years old in 1990 and quickly became a fan of the early-’90s Blue Jays championship teams. He opened Cabacoa, a Dominican restaurant, a year-and-a-half ago — a sign of the city’s growing Dominican community.
“I’ve been following Vladimir Guerrero Jr. since he was in the minors,” Vasquez said. “It’s funny because his dad was the only older Dominican Vladimir I knew growing up. But it’s important for the community, for the Dominican community, to have somebody who’s that good who’s going to be here long term.”
It’s part of the responsibility Guerrero shoulders beyond playing first base and batting third. He’s the only Canadian citizen on Canada’s only MLB team. His No. 27 jersey is the one Blue Jays fans wear from British Columbia to Newfoundland. He’s the player the Blue Jays committed to as their cornerstone through his age-40 season in 2039 — 20 years after his debut — with hopes he’ll end up with his own Hall of Fame career.
“I look at Vladdy long term because I’ve gotten to play with the greats,” said Scherzer, an 18-year veteran and three-time Cy Young Award winner. “I’ve gotten to play with so many great, different players over my career. For me, he kind of fits this Prince Fielder-Miguel Cabrera mold. He’s kind of a hybrid between those two.”
In the short term, the agreement was an exhale. Perhaps, as Atkins said he’d like to think, the Blue Jays would’ve found their footing without Guerrero signing the extension. The pieces were in place two years removed from an 89-win season. But that variable, which had lingered from the day Guerrero reported for spring training, was removed.
Six months later, the Blue Jays, behind their franchise pillar, are breaking through.
“I think it kind of showed our fan base and the league kind of what we’re trying to do here short and long term,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “And it just kind of clears a little bit of a cloud around a really good player and allows the team to say, ‘OK, this is our guy, this is what we’re going to do.’ I think it kind of freed everyone up.”
If the Toronto Blue Jays are going to bounce back, tonight’s the night.
After Toronto lost two at home to the Seattle Mariners, the American League Championship Series heads West for Game 3.
The first matchup at T-Mobile Park isn’t an elimination game, but the stakes couldn’t be much higher. It’s essentially a must-win for the top-seeded Blue Jays; only one team in MLB history has ever come back from trailing a postseason series 3-0. Meanwhile, for the Mariners, it’s a chance to get one victory away from the first World Series appearance in franchise history.
Stay here for our coverage — from the pregame lineups to the top moments during the game to our takeaways and analysis after the final pitch.
Key links: How Vlad Jr., Jays bet on each other | LCS update | Bracket
Top moments
Josh Naylor rocking a vintage KD jersey ahead of Game 3
Good luck @Mariners…good throwback Josh https://t.co/26FrDN4UNO
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) October 15, 2025
Lineups
Seattle leads series 2-0
Starting pitchers: Shane Bieber vs. George Kirby
Toronto
1. George Springer (R) DH
2. Nathan Lukes (L) LF
3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (R) 1B
4. Anthony Santander (S) RF
5. Alejandro Kirk (R) C
6. Daulton Varsho (L) CF
7. Addison Barger (L) 3B
8. Ernie Clement (R) 2B
9. Andres Gimenez (L) SS
Seattle
1. Randy Arozarena (R) LF
2. Cal Raleigh (S) C
3. Julio Rodriguez (R) CF
4. Jorge Polanco (S) 2B
5. Josh Naylor (L) 1B
6. Eugenio Suarez (R) 3B
7. Dominic Canzone (L) DH
8. Victor Robles (R) RF
9. J.P. Crawford (L) SS
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