Huge If True: Everybody’s buying NHL defensemen, but who’s selling?

[HUGE IF TRUE is a column breaking down the plausibility of the week's biggest rumor.]

The Rumor

It's not one rumor, it's roughly a dozen, but the general consensus is: Good defensemen are in short supply, but demand is quite high.

Has been for a while, too.

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As early as Oct. 10, there were reports that teams like Chicago wanted to trade for a serviceable defenseman. At that point in the season, there wasn't likely to be too many interested parties, however, given that the season was only a few days old at that point and even those teams that looked like crap off the blocks probably weren't willing to cut bait on anyone that quickly, even if it was in the name of a “shakeup.”

But shakeups are now the order of the day for at least the Calgary Flames, who have been at the center of just about every semi-legit rumor (and some non-legit ones; see also Stamkos, Steven) for the last week-plus given how dismal they've been.

Although with TJ Brodie now back from his hand injury — right in the middle of that initial “three to six weeks” prognosis — one wonders if the “shakeup” stage has passed for the time being.

As Elliotte Friedman notes in 30 Thoughts this week, the club would love to offload Dennis Wideman and his big contract, but probably wants to keep Kris Russell (the big question there: Why?). However, one imagines that if someone's sniffing around for either at even a discounted price, Brad Treliving would be more than happy to oblige them at this point. The Flames are dire, defense is a major problem, and there aren't too many people in the forward group anyone is going to want that the Flames would be willing to trade. The only “shakeup” they'd accept is on the blue line or, perhaps, in goal.

Other teams looking for ‘D’ beyond Columbus? Arizona and Boston, according to Bruce Garrioch. Both make sense, too, because again, these are thin-at-best blue line groups.

Pierre LeBrun says the Kings were once in the running for some D help but understandably like how they've turned things around after that bad start.

So who besides Calgary is out there selling D? Probably only St. Louis, according to Darren Dreger. And this is one of those things where they don't necessarily want to, but their injury situation up front has gotten such that they're signing Martin Havlat to PTOs just to field a half-decent attack. If they can move someone from their 4/5 spot like a Carl Gunnarsson, they might just do it to stop sweating.

Anaheim was also rumored (by Garrioch) to have shopped Clayton Stoner, but wisely, no one wants to trade for Clayton Stoner.

One guy who's not going anywhere despite a few rumors this week? Adam Larsson. Ray Shero himself shot that one out of the sky, along with that Travis Zajac-to-Toronto idea.

Who's Going Where?

Well, your trade candidates with actual names right now really only seem to be Kris Russel, Dennis Wideman, and Carl Gunnarsson, but there are likely a few more in the mix, especially from teams we might not have considered.

And here too, there is no shortage of potential destinations. Chicago still hasn't acquired anyone to provide blue line help in Duncan Keith's absence, Columbus needs help, Boston needs help, Arizona needs help. There might be some more out there who are likewise trying to bolster things.

So if we're accepting all this as fact — and with NHL trade rumors, we never ever ever ever should — we then have to consider who's going the other way if the Flames or Blues decide they're going to pull the trigger here.

In a separate radio interview a few days before 30 Thoughts, Friedman said that the Flames are specifically interested in Columbus forward prospect in Kerby Rychel, who currently has five points in three AHL games this season as a 21-year-old. And make no mistake, the Blue Jackets would like to shore up that awful ‘D’ group of theirs. However, given Rychel's credentials — former first-round pick, etc. — the asking price seems to be higher than the Flames would like, so perhaps they're not that desperate yet. Give it another week of losing, I guess.

Other than that, you have to look at who's expendable on the rosters of Chicago, Boston, Arizona, and Columbus. Loui Eriksson is the guy who springs to mind immediately, of course, and maybe Chris Kelly, but Eriksson is having a dynamite season with the Bruins so far (huge possession numbers, 2-7-9 in eight games), and no one wants Chris Kelly if they're looking to juice their offense or indeed, at all. Oh and also Brad Marchand haha just kidding. Even Cam Neely ended up refuting that one.

Who does Arizona have to trade that they'd be willing to part with and anyone would want? Look at the roster and see if you can come up with anyone. Steve Downie? Kyle Chipchura? If those are your options — and I'm discounting any future Shane Doan-for-(insert middling defenseman here) rumor out of hand — then thanks but no thanks.

As for Chicago, well, they have some cap space to play with, but here too you have to ask who are they giving up in such a swap that entices even a flailing team like Calgary? Andrew Desjardins? Bryan Bickell? Nothing much here to inspire confidence in the actual getting anything done behind these rumors, either.

The Implications

The big thing you should take away from these rumors is that teams quickly realize what their remaining needs are in the first few games after the season starts. However, very little shakes loose at this point in the calendar because most clubs don't have glaring problems they feel they need to address.

However, if you wait awhile, there are likely to be trades made, probably around U.S. Thanksgiving, just like every year. At this point, that's about a month away, and even if the Flames' playoff hopes haven't faded even more by that time, you can bet they'll still be happy to give you Dennis Wideman if you have a top-six or perhaps even top-nine forward to spare. Wouldn't be surprised if they pull in Loui Eriksson on that kind of deal, but again, who knows?

The Blues situation, meanwhile, looks a little more now-or-never. The longer things go on without a D-for-forward trade, the closer everyone is to being healthy, rendering the point of such a swap ultimately moot unless they're worried about their offense long-term. Which might be a reasonable concern. Point is, things are hardly guaranteed there either.

This Is So Huge, If True: Is It True?

On a B.S. detector scale of 1-5, with one being the most reasonable and 5 being the least:

Well, there's a lot to sift through here, but because of the sheer volume of people pushing these rumors, and how much sense the vast majority of them seem to make, we're just gonna have to give this one:

None of it is BS, necessarily, but this is more of a wait-and-see scenario. You shouldn't be surprised if all or none of it happens, but you should be if it happens any time soon. Lots of moving parts at a time when even the slightest shift can be monumental for a team's situation and psyche. Again, the Kings went from frantic after three games to very calm after winning six straight.

This is just a weird time of year, and everyone is kicking the tires on everything to make sure they're good for the long haul.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via War On Ice unless otherwise noted.)