Trade talk picking up around former first round pick on Saturday night.

One of the National Hockey League's top defensive forwards is suddenly available via trade.

On Saturday night, NHL insider Frank Seravalli revealed that trade talk around the topic of Los Angeles Kings forward Phillip Danault has picked up considerably.

Danault has struggled to produce offensively this season with no goals and only 4 assists through his first 27 games of the regular season and it's not hard to see why some may believe that a change of scenery would benefit Danault. In spite of not producing anything on the offensive side of the puck, Danault does boast a plus minus rating of +1 on the season thanks in large part to his strong defensive play.

Danault has long been considered one of the NHL's elite shut down forwards and teams looking to add Danault via trade will be looking to add that particular set of defensive skills to their roster.

There's no denying however that Danault is in a major slump at this stage and that could have a seriously negative impact on the return the Kings are able to get for him.

Danault is currently on a 6 year deal that carries an average annual value of $5.5 million per season and has 2 more years remaining on that deal beyond this one. That could complicate matters with team's needing to have sufficient cap space to make the deal, and that is before we get into Danault's own level of control in this potential trade.

Although Danault did have a no move clause as part of his contract, that has switched to a 10 team no trade list this season. That will limit Danault's leverage here, something that could allow the Kings to get the best possible return.