Colorado and Vancouver already said they won’t be looking to spend a 1st, Minnesota leaked that the green light has been given to sell and trade UFAs, and Anaheim’s GM essentially made clear that he plans to get rid of players that don’t fit. Arizona and Chicago both obviously shouldn’t and won’t be moving futures in exchange for present assets.
That right there brings it down to 16. Then there are teams like Carolina and Columbus that could really go either way with guys like Ferland, Panarin, and Bobrovsky.
Then you have to consider the amount of high end top-6 forwards available that will be headed to UFA. Every single one of Nyquist, E. Staal, Panarin, Stone, Zuccarello, and Hayes would have an argument for best rental available at last year’s trade deadline. On top of that, there are a lot of other pending UFAs that will also be coveted like Bobrovsky, Howard, Dzingel, Simmonds, Ferland, Silfverberg, Johansson, Jensen, Brassard, etc.
I'm sure there are a few other pending UFAs that I forgot. Then you've got other guys with term whose names have come up - Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Hoffman, Brayden Schenn, Alec Martinez - maybe not one of those guys, but there's probably going to be at least one player with term who gets moved and kind of shocks us all.
Maybe there aren’t a lot of true sellers. I don't even agree with that, but if I did, it doesn't matter because the teams that are selling all have some damn good pieces to give. And that’s why this year’s trade market is going to be favorable to buyers at the deadline.