Trade market about to bust open; players who could be on the move soon + more

We're now just 12 days away from the NHL draft and the opening of the UFA interview period. On June 22nd the NHL Board of Governors will vote on expansion, which will tell GMs whether they need to make trades in anticipation of a 2017 expansion draft. And if teams want to make sure they don't want to face an offer sheet on one of their RFAs, they'd better get on that before the June 28th RFA interview period opens.

It's believed that trade chatter chatter around the league has seriously picked up in the background of the Stanley Cup Finals. If last season is any indication, it might not be long before the big dominoes start to fall. In 2015, NHL teams made 42 trades between June 1st and July 1st, mostly in the weeks before and after the draft.

Five names rumoured to be on the move before the NHL draft:
1. Tyson Barrie, D, Colorado
2. Jacob Trouba, D, Winnipeg
3. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, F, Edmonton
4. Pavel Datsyuk, F, Detroit (cap dump)
5.  Frederik Andersen, G, Anaheim

See the rest of the list on the NHL Trade Rumour Board.

Rumour tidbits

A few Euro-centric items today:

- There's a rumour out there suggesting Blackhawks pending RFA forward Dennis Rasmussen is considering his options in Sweden this upcoming season. Given the Blackhawks cap crunch, this move wouldn't be a surprise.

- Reto Berra is generating interest from the Swiss league - Lugano in particular. Berra has another year of his contract with the Avs but likely won't play many games in the NHL this upcoming season.

- Pending UFA Nikita Nikitin is rumoured to be headed back to the KHL this upcoming season. Nikitin generated a bit of buzz at the NHL trade deadline, garnering interest from teams such as the Avalanche and Blackhawks.

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Rest in peace, #9.