{"id":456854,"date":"2025-12-19T02:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456854\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T02:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:47:14","slug":"canadiens-devils-mammoth-among-teams-with-interest-in-phillip-danault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456854\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens, Devils, Mammoth Among Teams With Interest In Phillip Danault"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canadiens, Devils, and Mammoth are among the teams that have interest in making a deal for Kings center\u00a0Phillip Danault<\/a><\/strong>, TSN\u2019s Pierre LeBrun<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Montreal has long been active in the market for a second-line center, a pursuit that only intensified after long-term hopeful\u00a0Alex Newhook<\/a><\/strong> had ankle surgery<\/a>, knocking him out until March. Danault wouldn\u2019t back nearly as much offensive punch as some other candidates, but he\u2019s a familiar option \u2013 playing 360 games for the Habs between 2016 and 2021 as one of the most suffocating matchup centers in the league. His comfort level in a top-six support role, averaging at least 16 minutes per game for nine consecutive seasons, makes him a natural fit even as his scoring has dried up.<\/p>\n

Danault\u2019s contract, which expires after next season and carries a $5.5MM cap hit, won\u2019t be an obstacle for them or most other teams. The Kings will almost certainly be taking money back in the deal as they seek rostered talent in return for Danault, with LeBrun reporting they\u2019re unwilling to flip him for draft picks or futures.<\/p>\n

His putrid scoring line this season, notching just five assists in 30 games with no goals, is bound to scare at least a few center-needy teams off. He\u2019s still averaging a respectable 1.40 shots on goal per game, though, and the Kings have finished at a woeful 7.0% clip with him on the ice at 5-on-5. Some positive regression is bound to occur, particularly with the 32-year-old notching at least 40 points in each of his first four seasons with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

While that offensive falloff and his minutes being cut due to\u00a0Quinton Byfield<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s move back to center have him looking for a change of scenery<\/a>, his advanced numbers still remain some of the best on the Kings. He\u2019s managed a +3 rating despite the lack of offensive production while receiving primarily defensive zone starts at even strength. No L.A. forward has been on the ice for fewer shots per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than Danault at 23.9.<\/p>\n

That makes the Devils\u2019 interest in him likely more than just a top-six stopgap while\u00a0Jack Hughes<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>continues his rehab from a hand injury. When Hughes returns in the coming weeks, Danault would slot in as New Jersey\u2019s third-line pivot behind Hughes and fellow Selke Trophy candidate Nico Hischier<\/a><\/strong> while also serving as one of their top penalty killers. It wouldn\u2019t amount to a significant change in role compared to what Danault\u2019s seeing now in L.A., but with only a 10-team no-trade list as part of his deal, he doesn\u2019t have much say in the matter.<\/p>\n

Still, he would appear as more of a redundancy behind Hischier than another scoring winger, presumably a higher priority for the Devils as their offense has slipped into the bottom half of the league amid a rough post-Thanksgiving stretch. Weaponizing their already limited cap space on Danault wouldn\u2019t offer a truly meaningful upgrade to their top nine when healthy, especially with their new-look third line of\u00a0Arseny Gritsyuk<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Cody Glass<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Connor Brown<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>posting spectacular results earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Like New Jersey, the Mammoth have a short-term need down the middle with\u00a0Logan Cooley<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>out of commission until February. They have a younger, cheaper, in-house option with a similar archetype to Danault in\u00a0Barrett Hayton<\/a><\/strong>. While he\u2019s also had some offensive struggles this season, he\u2019s still contributed more points than Danault (a 4-3\u20137 scoring line in 31 games) and is coming off a 20-goal year. He\u2019s struggled in the faceoff dot at 47.8%, though, indicating they may be planning on shifting him to the wing if they do pick up Danault once Cooley is back in the fold.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of David Gonzales-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canadiens, Devils, and Mammoth are among the teams that have interest in making a deal for Kings…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":456855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[2081,3104,2994,1649,293,209112,62,67,132,68,2082],"class_list":{"0":"post-456854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-los-angeles-kings","9":"tag-montreal-canadiens","10":"tag-new-jersey-devils","11":"tag-newsstand","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-phillip-danault","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-utah-mammoth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115743952266857385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}