The Carolina Hurricanes are one of the NHL's worst teams.
They're 13-24-5 and in eighth place in the eight-team Metropolitan division.
As such, the team and GM Ron Francis are expected by those in the know around the league to be sellers ahead of the NHL's self-imposed March trade deadline.
Goalie Cam Ward is one player the team has had discussions about possibly moving, according to a report from TheFourthPeriod.com
Ward has one-year left on his contract - his annual cap hit is $6.3 million but he's earning $6.7 million this year and will earn $6.8 next season - and he's 30 years old. He does have a no-trade clause, but the thought around the NHL seems to be that the veteran netminder would waive it for the right situation.
The Canes have fielded calls on Ward in the past and don't feel any pressure to move him now. But could a club like the Detroit Red Wings, who just lost goalie Jimmy Howard for two to four weeks or the Minnesota Wild, facing unbelievably poor play between the pipes this season, offer a premium price, it would be hard for the Canes and Francis to say no.
Center and team captain Eric Staal, on the other hand, seems like he isn't going anywhere.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, appearing on a recent episode of Calgary's Sportsnet 960, as transcribed by NicholsOnHockey.com, said that he has gotten the impression from teams interested in potentially acquiring Staal, that they don't believe he'll waive his no-trade clause this season.
"I think the other interesting kind of stuff out there is I checked - I was asking a couple of teams who I thought might be interested in Eric Staal, and they're kind of telling me that they're under the impression that Eric Staal will not waive his no-trade this year," Friedman said. "I kind of looked into that, and that's the impression I got. I mean, there's still six weeks to the deadline, so you never know if anything changes, but there sure are teams who seem to believe he's not going to be available, at least not this season."
Staal has 13 goals and 13 assists this season for Carolina, the only NHL city he's ever called home in his decade-plus career.
