If there's one thing that's certain in NHL life, it's that trade rumors and speculation will continue until the March 7 trade deadline.

Teams that need to add or sell and players whose contracts expire after this season dominate the discussion. The rest is up to informed speculation from NHL insiders or others with wild imaginations.

The start of the new season for some teams has us wondering which teams that have struggled at the beginning could be done by deadline day and if any presumed buyers might wind up having their garage sale instead. Even though that kind of talk is dependent on how they perform the rest of the way this season, there are a few big-name players who will wind up being discussed in rumors no matter what.

Because there are so many more games the rest of the way, we're not getting too much in the way of hardcore rumors for players right now, but we've come up with a few players we'll be kicking around for the next few months in our mock trades anyway.

Patrick Kane

There will be a few awkward names on our list today and it's because the situation their team is in right now makes it so. Take, for example, the Detroit Red Wings with Patrick Kane.

Yes, Kane re-signed with the Wings this summer after proving last season he was good to go after hip surgery and was still able to produce well offensively. The Wings are also a team close to getting back to the playoffs...at least they were last year.

This season has started difficult for the Red Wings and the stress level in Detroit is high given the pressure on everyone to get the franchise back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They're 1-3-0 to start the season and haven't looked pretty while doing it.

That's the exact kind of situation the 35-year-old future Hall-of-Famer didn't intend to sign up for. Kane is looking to be part of a playoff team and hopeful Cup contender. If the Wings continue to struggle this season and find themselves more out of the playoff picture than in it, Kane's name will be bounced around a lot as a player to help a contending team go for the Cup.

If the Wings can get focused and into the playoff picture, you can call off Kane watch, but right now that's looking dicey.

Mikko Rantanen

The Avalanche's big-scoring winger Mikko Rantanen is in the final year of his contract and can become an unrestricted free agent in July. Colorado isn't a team that would be eager to let a 90-to-100-point scorer walk away and would be more apt to extend him, right? Right!

Of course, the Avs have stumbled out of the gate thanks to some seriously poor goaltending and even their outstanding offense is fighting to score enough goals to help out Alexandar Georgiev and the rest of the goaltenders.

Even thinking of trading Rantanen sounds bonkers in theory, but Colorado is hard up against the salary cap ceiling and using LTIR is allowing them to go beyond the limit. The best thing for the Avalanche moving ahead is to extend Rantanen and figure out the rest as it happens. But, if talks get desperate in some way and contract extension negotiations don't play out well, making Rantanen available would bring a lot of teams out of the woodwork to try and make a deal.

Taylor Hall

We've watched Taylor Hall start this season in Chicago with a lot of curiosity. Not only is he returning from a brutal injury, but he's also in the final year of his contract and playing for a Blackhawks team that's not likely destined to contend for a playoff spot this season, never mind a Stanley Cup.

Hall has a goal and an assist in the first five games of the season and as a veteran player and former league MVP, he'd be an attractive player for any contending team come deadline time. Hall's reputation of offensive production and play from the wing sells itself and any contender seeking him out likely wouldn't be doing so to press him into being the No. 1 guy there.

Hall as a complementary player for a deep team would make for an excellent addition and there's no doubt the teams that expect to be there late into the playoffs will be keeping an eye on him. Then again, if Chicago suddenly found themselves to be in the mix for the postseason and if Hall was a key contributor to that, they might just hang onto him to help Connor Bedard get his first taste of the NHL postseason.

Claude Giroux

The potentially awkward situation we spoke about with Patrick Kane in Detroit could also apply to Claude Giroux in Ottawa.

Like the Red Wings, the Senators entered the season looking to make a run at the postseason, and having Giroux there to provide veteran leadership and a continued high level of performance is meant to give them an edge should they make it to the playoffs.

However, if Ottawa winds up struggling and slips out of the playoff picture, teams will come calling for Giroux to help them become a deeper team and to add a leader who's been there before.

At 36 years old, Giroux has seen it all from his time in Philadelphia and his half-season with Florida. The postseason battles and the know-how of going up against the league's best would be supremely valuable to a team in need. Heck, that's a major reason why Ottawa brought him on board in the first place back in 2022.

If Ottawa falls on hard times again, moving Giroux would be a logical play and one that would net them help for the future as well.

Nikolaj Ehlers

Winnipeg's Nikolaj Ehlers is a guy who will land on lists like this every time until he's finally signed to a long-term contract. But there's a big catch in play here as well.

While Ehlers is in the final year of his contract, he's also playing for a Jets team that was outstanding a year ago and suddenly became a Stanley Cup contender and that perspective hasn't changed to start this season.

There's no hurry for the Jets to move Ehlers, particularly since he's playing well and continues to be one of their top forwards. He's the kind of player the Jets would be looking to add if they didn't have him already.

But they do have him and as long as they're in a position to pursue a shot at winning the Central Division as well as the Cup, they're not likely in the mindset to deal Ehlers to anyone. If the Jets fell out of the playoff picture though, Ehlers would likely become a hot commodity to acquire by a team in need of shoring up their forward group for the postseason.

However, as long as Winnipeg has Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey running the show, they'll have a chance to go deep and having Ehlers there to help would outweigh the need to move him.

Frank Vatrano

The Anaheim Ducks are young and fun and growing together and veteran scorer Frank Vatrano has proven to be a valuable winger for their young core of forwards.

The Ducks have a good thing cooking there with Leo Carlsson, Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry and Pavel Mintyukov and young guys like that need older guys with them to help carry them forward into the future and Vatrano helps all of them fill up their stat sheets by being a wicked sniper and scorer.

If Anaheim winds up in a position to compete for the playoffs, having Vatrano stick around with them would be a great thing. But if the Ducks come back to earth and wind up being more likely to compete for the No. 1 pick rather than the No. 1 (or 2) wild card spot in the West, trading Vatrano would bring many suitors to their front door.

Vatrano is in the final year of his contract and has a very affordable $3.65 million cap hit. There were rumors last season that one of his former teams, the New York Rangers, was looking into re-acquiring him. But Anaheim held firm and opted to keep him in the fold there to help balance out their young roster.

If Anaheim does decide to look into trading Vatrano, expect there to be a lot of interest from contending teams looking to bolster their offense.

Mitch Marner

At this point, it seems far-fetched that the Toronto Maple Leafs will deal superstar forward Mitch Marner. But until he signs a long-term extension there, we're virtually forced to include him in any discussion about players whose name will come up in trade chatter.

As you're probably aware by now, Marner is in the final year of his contract and can become an unrestricted free agent in July. Marner is from Toronto and playing for the Leafs is a boyhood dream come true, and he wants to be part of the group that ends the franchise's Stanley Cup drought.

The Leafs also know that if they were to trade Marner, it's surely a trade they would lose out of hand because they'd be giving up the best player. Even though the return on any deal for Marner would be massive, the chances they'd be able to replace what he does offensively and defensively one-for-one would be very low.

Marner is great for the Leafs and Toronto is far better off with him than without him. Teaming him up with Auston Matthews and William Nylander makes them dynamic and finding a way to blow that up would be somehow the most Leafs thing to do. But if they felt they had to trade Marner, they would have 31 teams fighting to be first on the phone with GM Brad Treliving to get him.