NHL Rumors: 3 Landing Spots For Blackhawks' Jake McCabe

As the Chicago Blackhawks have nearly every player available for trade, Jake McCabe should peak the interest of a few teams. He is a left-shot defender who can play in the top-four and has a focus on the defensive side of the game. He also has a cap hit of $4 million for two more seasons, but coming from a team like the Blackhawks, some of that could be retained without a problem.

The Fourth Period noted that McCabe could be a good fit for the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, and Ottawa Senators, and we'll get into why.

The Rangers have rotated through a few defencemen on the third pairing since Gerard Gallant hasn't liked what he's seen from youngsters Zac Jones and Libor Hajek. Ben Harpur holds down the role as the sixth defenceman currently, but the team definitely needs a strong presence back there to be secured on all lines and give Braden Schneider a better partner. The Rangers may get him for a bit longer than they need, but they could always flip him in a season or two unless some cap space is retained.

The Oilers are in desperate need of defensive help from a player who is consistent, strong, and can be relied upon. There have been far too many defensive breakdowns this season from a team that should be near the top of the league. Instead, they are fighting for a playoff spot and not in a good place. They have a couple candidates to move out, but just like the Rangers, they have a spot on the left side that needs to be filled by someone more reliable and strong defensively than rookies Philip Borberg and Markus Niemelainen or Ryan Murray.

The Senators are more of an obvious one based on the length left on McCabe's contract. They are happy with three of their defencemen - Thomas Chabot, Artem Zub, and Jake Sanderson. But they are looking to upgrade the rest and are desperate to trade Nikita Zaitsev. They could kill two birds with one stone if they were to acquire McCabe and at the same time get rid of Zaitsev's contract. It would be costly, but they would have their top-four in place and know what money they have available to re-sign Alex DeBrincat.