The NHL trade deadline has come and gone and even though Friday was rather quiet with no real blockbusters, teams like the Bruins and the Rangers were busy leading up to it.
Both Boston and New York made significant moves to bolster their rosters as the Stanley Cup playoffs draw closer.
Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at the deadline’s biggest winners and losers.
WINNERS
Boston Bruins: The Bruins landed Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals before acquiring Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings. After all was said and done, Boston gave up Craig Smith as its only roster player. The B’s didn’t give up prospects and only draft picks to complete the trades. Orlov already has been a seamless fit with his new team, producing seven points in three games including back-to-back three-point nights, while Hathaway also has been making a strong impression.
Boston is the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, and despite injuries to Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno, the Bruins now are deep enough to still have a strong team even when they’re not 100% healthy. They’re deep, they’re strong and they’re built for a long Stanley Cup playoff run.
New York Rangers: The Rangers added two of the biggest names to their roster in Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. They were able to acquire Kane for draft picks and they didn’t need to give up a complete haul for the three-time Stanley Cup champion because of Kane’s no-movement clause that he had to waive. New York, and Kane, had all the advantage over Chicago.
Even the Tarasenko trade with the St. Louis Blues left the Rangers will their best draft pick for the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. To get two top-tier players and still have a first-round pick deserves applause.
If the Rangers make the Eastern Conference Final, they will lose a 2024 or 2025 first-round pick to the Blackhawks. But if all goes according to New York’s plan, it will be an even bigger winner.
They may need to get through the Bruins, though, which could prove to be a tall task but certainly would be an entertaining series.
Toronto Maple Leafs: The Maple Leafs’ acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly undoubtedly helps the offense, but it seemed to be the same old song and dance with Toronto when it came to the defense — an area it’s needed help at for quite some time. But the Maple Leafs ended up getting some help on the blue line in Luke Schenn, Erik Gustafsso and Jake McCabe. Will it be enough to overcome their playoff woes and win a series this year? That’s still to be determined. They’re having a great season and are in second place in the Atlantic Division. The downfall of the Atlantic is that the Bruins are in first place and have a 17-point lead over their Maple Leafs rival.
Ottawa Senators: The Senators won the Jakob Chychrun sweepstakes after the defenseman was linked to many different teams over the years. Ottawa gets a young, solid D-man for the next few seasons as its defense looks a bit crowded now, but that could be a good problem to have this offseason or next year’s trade deadline.
New Jersey Devils: Timo Meier was brought in as a goal-scoring winger and to help bolster the power play. A physical top-six forward, Meier will help the Devils in the playoffs and provides that postseason experience this team doesn’t exactly have. He could prove to just be a rental and will be a restricted free agent this summer, but sometimes rentals pay off in the long run.
Honorable mention:
Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers certainly don’t need help when it comes to offense thanks to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, it’s the defense — much like the Maple Leafs — that seems to be their downfall. But Edmonton got help in that department with Mattias Ekholm coming to the Oilers. He figures to help the 5-on-5 woes as Edmonton makes a push for the playoffs.
LOSERS
Chicago Blackhawks: Chicago is rebuilding, but it needed to make more aggressive moves. Trading Patrick Kane and Max Domi helped, but the return should have been better for Domi. There wasn’t much the Blackhawks could do with Kane given him being in control with the no-movement clause in his contract, but this year’s deadline didn’t do a whole lot for the rebuilding ‘Hawks.
Arizona Coyotes: They absolutely should have gotten more for Chychrun. Maybe trying to draft Connor Bedard is front of mind for the Coyotes, but he’s not going to fix your franchise if that’s the grand plan.
Pittsburgh Penguins: The Penguins already were an old team before Friday’s deadline, and they got older with the additions of Nick Bonino, Mikael Granlund and Dmitry Kulikov. Bold move to go older and not younger, and with how the other Eastern Conference teams around the Pens bolstered their lineups, these moves don’t exactly stack up.
Pittsburgh really could have benefitted from speed, but general manager Ron Hextall decided against it.
Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers lost four straight and were 2-6-2 in their last 10 going into Friday’s deadline and this was a perfect opportunity for Chuck Fletcher to do something — anything — to help make a bad Philadelphia team the least bit better.
But he didn’t.
The Flyers did acquire Brendan Lemieux and a 2024 fifth-round pick from the Los Angeles Kings for Zack MacEwen, and then were was the whole James van Riemsdyk debacle when he reportedly was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, but something happened very quickly and the deal fell through.
They could have, and should have, done more. Philly has very little draft capital and it would take a miracle for the Flyers to reach the playoffs at this point.
Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks added some youth at the deadline and were able to trade for Filip Hronek, but Vancouver has been in cap hell for what has seemed like forever, and it didn’t get any relief with the moves it made. CapFriendly projected the Canucks will have less than $1 million in cap space going into the 2023-23 season, it begs the question if getting Hronek was the right move for the team. Yes, he’s a top-four defenseman and helps bolster the blue line, but with being so tight against the cap, was it the smartest move for their future?
Jonathan Quick: After 16 seasons with the Kings, Los Angeles dealt its goaltender to the Columbus Blue Jackets before Quick was traded once more to Bruce Cassidy’s Vegas Golden Knights. It was a wild 24 hours for Quick, who won two Stanley Cups with the Kings in 2012 and 2014 and was blindsided by the trade out of Los Angeles. It’s tough to call him a loser of the deadline because he did end up with a top team in the Western Conference, and Vegas was in need of a goaltender.
Tampa Bay Lightning: They overpaid for Tanner Jeannot. Enough said.
