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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Seller’s market for NHL teams as trade deadline nears

Associated Press

General managers, count your draft picks. In this trade market, they’re valuable currency.

In the days leading to today’s NHL trade deadline, draft picks have been moving at a swift pace. It’s a seller’s market and much more selling could come.

Already the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes and Arizona Coyotes have gotten first-round picks for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli, Andrej Sekera and Antonie Vermette, and older players like Kimmo Timonen and Jaromir Jagr have fetched second-rounders and more.

On Sunday, the New York Rangers acquired All-Star defenseman Keith Yandle from the Coyotes for defenseman John Moore, a top prospect and two draft picks.

Arizona also sent defenseman Chris Summers and a fourth-round pick to the Rangers, who gave up prospect Anthony Duclair, a conditional first-round draft pick in 2016 and a 2015 second-round pick.

The 28-year-old Yandle is Arizona’s leading scorer this season with 41 points and is a four-time All-Star. He has been a core member of the Coyotes since they drafted him in the fourth round of the 2005 draft.

Yandle has one year remaining on a five-year, $26 million contract signed in 2011.

On Friday, Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall acquired second- and fourth-round picks from Chicago for the 39-year-old Timonen, who hasn’t played this season.

“In the end they may have underpaid by a long shot for this deal,” Hextall said during a conference call Friday night. “If Kimmo had played all year and we had moved him right now, this wouldn’t have been the return. It would’ve been, I believe, far greater than this.”

Teams that want rentals could look at Buffalo Sabres winger Chris Stewart or goalie Michal Neuvirth, Dallas Stars forwards Erik Cole and Shawn Horcoff or even New York Rangers winger Mats Zuccarello.

Jeff Petry of the Edmonton Oilers and Zbynek Michalek of the Coyotes are the top pending unrestricted free-agent defensemen available, and the Leafs might even be able to get something for Korbinian Holzer.