Darren Dreger released a top 10 "most likely to be trade" list recently, which PD fisks here. There are potentially a number of interesting rental names there, but the one sneaky value guy may be the Coyotes Peter Mueller. The kid made the big club as a teen back in 2007 and scored 22 goals as a rookie. Now, there was probably some nice circumstances and bounces involved (since that's his best single season output thus far), but anyone who makes the show as a teen and puts up 20+ goals on a bad team is no joke.
Muellers results stink this year - 3 goals, 13 points. According to Five For Howling (linked in the PD story above), his play has been "disastrous". Now, when I see results that poor and read comments like that, the first thing I check is the percentages - especially with young players who have managed nice numbers at a young age already.
And, not surprisingly, Mueller's PDO is the worst amongst regular skaters on the club at 96.3. His on-ice SH% (6.8) is ghastly. Only Shane Doan and Matthew Lombardi have a worse on-ice SV%. In contrast, Mueller's other underlying numbers are solid. He's in the black in terms of possession (corsi is +8.34/60) and his level of competition is roughly middle of the road.
In short, the kids getting jobbed by the bounces more than anything. He's in line for a correction down the road. On top of that, he's a functional NHL player at just 21 years old - those are extremely rare, valuable commodities. So while he may not look like a viable "rental player" who will help a team win a play-off series right now, he's probably the type of guy who is can help a team win a bunch down the road.
