Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

Tick tock.

The New York Rangers remain in negotiations to keep winger Chris Kreider, but the Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins appear to have emerged as front-runners for his services on the trade market.

Kreider, 28, has been No. 1 on the TSN Trade Bait Board since December.

The Avalanche were in on Kreider well before right wing Mikko Rantanen went down with a reported collarbone injury in Monday night’s game against Tampa Bay. That injury may have only heightened the urgency to make it happen.

The Bruins have been in on the Boston College and Boxford, Mass., kid all along, as the team atop the NHL standings attempts to avenge last year’s crushing Game 7 loss to St. Louis on home ice in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Blues and, to a lesser extent, the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals, are all believed to have inquired about Kreider’s availability. But the Blues’ focus may have shifted to defence with Jay Bouwmeester’s future up in the air following a scary cardiac episode in Anaheim last week.

Both the spoked-B and the Avs are well positioned to land Kreider. Colorado has the ability to offer the complete package between their deeper prospect pool and ample salary cap space. They’re also currently missing another top-six centre in Nazem Kadri.

Kreider would be a tougher salary squeeze in Beantown, but GM Don Sweeney had the magic touch last year around the deadline, acquiring another hometown forward in Charlie Coyle from the Wild for Ryan Donato. Coyle had nine goals and 16 points in 24 playoff games, finding instant chemistry with Marcus Johansson – who was scooped up from New Jersey for second- and fourth-round picks – while Donato is back on our trade board today.

Kreider will have a choice to make. He's expressed his interest in remaining a Ranger. Over the next handful of days, he’ll have to decide whether New York's best offer is enough to be a Blueshirt, or whether he'll be skating on. The clock is ticking.

Six days to go. There are 50 names in play.

Here is TSN Hockey’s latest Trade Bait board, which always seeks to blend a player’s prominence with his likelihood of a deal:

Trade Bait - Feb. 18 Trend Player Pos Age GP G PTS Cap Hit Years 1. Chris Kreider, NYR LW 28 57 23 42 $4.63M UFA 2. Sami Vatanen, NJD RD 28 47 5 23 $4.9M UFA 3. Jean-Gabriel Pageau, OTT C 27 57 22 36 $3.1M UFA 4. Alec Martinez, LAK LD 32 41 1 8 $4M 1 5. Carolina's 1st Round Pick 2020 6. Ilya Kovalchuk, MTL LW 36 36 9 21 $700K UFA 7. Andreas Athanasiou, DET LW 25 44 8 22 $3M RFA 8. Kyle Palmieri, NJD RW 29 54 22 41 $4.65M 1 9. Erik Gustafsson, CHI LD 27 58 6 26 $1.2M UFA 10. Vladislav Namestnikov, OTT LW 27 53 12 24 $4M UFA 11. Mike Hoffman, FLA RW 30 59 22 47 $5.19M UFA 12. Patrick Marleau, SJS LW 40 55 10 20 $700K UFA 13. Joe Thornton, SJS C 40 59 2 25 $2M UFA 14. Derek Grant, ANA C 29 47 14 20 $700K UFA 15. Barclay Goodrow, SJS C 26 59 8 24 $925K 1 16. Robin Lehner, CHI G 28 32 2.91 0.921 $5M UFA 17. Conor Sheary, BUF LW 27 52 9 19 $3M UFA 18. Vincent Trocheck, FLA C 26 52 9 33 $4.75M 2 19. Jonas Brodin, MIN LD 26 58 2 24 $4.17M 1 20. Wayne Simmonds, NJD RW 31 58 7 23 $5M UFA 21. Detroit's Cap Space 2020 22. Alex Kerfoot, TOR C 25 55 8 25 $3.5M 3 23. Kasperi Kapanen, TOR RW 23 59 11 32 $3.2M 2 24. Matt Dumba, MIN RD 25 58 4 20 $6M 3 25. Josh Anderson, CBJ RW 25 26 1 4 $1.85M RFA 26. Pavel Buchnevich, NYR RW 24 58 13 35 $3.25M 1 27. Anthony DeAngelo, NYR RD 24 56 13 43 $925K RFA 28. Shayne Gostisbehere, PHI LD 26 41 5 12 $4.5M 3 29. Ondrej Kase, ANA RW 24 49 7 23 $2.6M 1 30. Rasmus Ristolainen, BUF RD 25 59 5 28 $5.4M 2 31. Mike Green, DET RD 34 46 2 9 $5.38M UFA 32. Ron Hainsey, OTT LD 38 52 1 11 $3.5M UFA 33. Chris Tierney, OTT C 25 59 10 30 $2.94M RFA 34. Ryan Donato, MIN LW 23 52 11 18 $1.9M 1 35. Craig Smith, NSH RW 30 58 17 28 $4.5M UFA 36. Valtteri Filppula, DET C 35 60 5 19 $3M 1 37. Brady Skjei, NYR LD 25 57 7 22 $5.25M 4 38. Mikael Granlund, NSH LW 27 52 14 24 $5.75M UFA 39. Sam Bennett, CGY LW 23 42 7 11 $2.55M 1 40. Michael Del Zotto, ANA LD 29 37 2 11 $750K UFA 41. Nate Thompson, MTL C 35 60 3 13 $1M UFA 42. Trevor Lewis, LAK RW 33 45 3 9 $2M UFA 43. Devin Shore, ANA LW 25 36 3 9 $2.3M UFA 44. Rocco Grimaldi, NSH RW 27 55 10 29 $1M UFA 45. Evgeni Dadonov, FLA RW 30 59 24 43 $4M UFA 46. Zach Bogosian, BUF RD 29 19 1 5 $5.14M UFA 47. Josh Manson, ANA RD 28 40 1 6 $4.1M 2 48. Kyle Turris, NSH C 30 51 9 28 $6M 4 49. Jeff Petry, MTL RD 32 61 8 35 $5.5M 1 50. Jesse Puljujarvi, EDM* RW 21 46 18 44 - RFA

*Stats from SM-Liiga

TRADED:

4. Brenden Dillon (Sjs to Wsh)

6. Tyler Toffoli (LA to Van)

10. Dylan DeMelo (Ott to Wpg)

11. Jason Zucker (Min to Pit)

29. Kyle Clifford (LA to Tor)

36. Alex Galchenyuk (Pit to Min)

37. Marco Scandella (Mtl to Stl)