The 10 teams under the most pressure to do something today, plus a Knights collapse, Hawks questions and more

I love trade deadline day. I hate writing the power rankings on trade deadline day.

I mean, what’s the point? Rankings are always ephemeral by nature, because a few good or bad games can change perceptions significantly. But today? I can rank your team somewhere because their blueline isn’t good enough, and they may have addressed that by the time you get around to reading it two hours later. Today should be wild, which is great for everyone except me when I’m writing this.

So before we get to the maybe-already-obsolete top and bottom five, let’s kick it off with a different ranking: My list of the 10 teams under the most pressure to do something big today.

10. Dallas Stars. It feels like the decision has been made on sticking with big names like John Klingberg and Joe Pavelski, and the standings say that could be the right call. But they’re slumping now, so maybe Jim Nill needs to rethink things. It would be a genuine game-changer for the day if he did, but feels so unlikely that the Stars crack the top ten, but only barely.

9. Edmonton Oilers. I’m ranking them this low because they’re more comfortable thanks to their win streak, and they’re doing everything short of renting out billboards reading “We won’t do much”. Still… I mean, you’re really going to stay the course in goal? That’s the plan? If you say so.

8. Nashville Predators. It’s decision day on Filip Forsberg, and it remains a tough call. Keeping him for the stretch run and a possible playoff appearance shouldn’t be out of the question, but David Poile’s phone probably rings a few times today with offers. How much would it take for him to pull the trigger?

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