NHL Trade Deadline Winners and Losers
The 2022 National Hockey League trade deadline day wrapped up with a total of 33 trades involving 54 players. A flurry of deals came as 3:00 PM EST hit and continued to trickle in for many hours after as the National Hockey League Central Registry caught up with the days’ activity.
In addition to all the action around the day itself, plenty of teams took advantage of the days and weeks leading up to the deadline and beat the market for players they had their eyes on. As we head down the stretch run of the season, which teams positioned themselves best for the rest of 2022 and beyond, and which teams didn’t do enough for success either this season or for seasons to come?
Deadline Winners
Plenty of teams either improved their chances of winning this season or put themselves in a better position to improve in the offseason.
Almost all of the leading Stanley Cup contenders got better. The Tampa Bay Lightning built a third line on the fly with the acquisitions of Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel, the Florida Panthers put a stamp on their contender status with the big-time acquisitions of Ben Chiarot and Claude Giroux and the Colorado Avalanche rounded their team out by trading for Josh Manson and Artturi Lehkonen.
The Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Boston Bruins all improved their teams dealing for Marc-André Fleury, Rickard Rakell, and Hampus Lindholm, respectively. Leading up to the deadline, the Calgary Flames also made a statement by adding forwards Tyler Toffoli and Calle Järnkrok to the fold.
On the flip side, the Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens, two teams currently retooling with new management in place, won the day in a different way. Both organizations were able to offload some of their expiring contracts for much-needed draft picks, prospects, and cap space to help accelerate their return to relevance.
Caught in the Middle
While there are always winners and losers of a trade deadline, there are also teams who finish the day somewhere in the middle.
Chicago Blackhawks are an organization undergoing change and are entering a retooling phase. With aging stars and not a lot of prospect or draft pick capital, the Hawks were widely expected to offload more than they did. They were able to trade Fleury but failed to find deals for Calvin de Hann and Dylan Strome, who have been rumored to be out the door all season long. The Washington Capitals watched the Bruins, Penguins, and New York Rangers all improve their rosters in a big way while they simply tinkered with depth pieces. Sometimes, teams can do too much around the deadline but all-in-all, the Capitals failed to keep up in the divisional arms race. We’ll see if their plan to stay relatively quiet will work.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers made some sizeable moves at or around the deadline. The Leafs traded for Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell from the Seattle Kraken and the Oilers were able to lock up free-agent Evander Kane and trade for Brett Kulak from the Canadiens before the clock struck 3:00 PM. However, both teams were and still are, in dire need of goaltending. It was somewhat of a shock that with so much at stake for both franchises, the Leafs and Oilers are seemly content with the inconsistent goaltending they’ve been receiving for most of the season. Time will tell if the gamble to not pay up for a netminder will pay off.
Deadline Losers
As many winners as there were at the deadline, there were losers. One team, in particular, the Vegas Golden Knights, failed to add anything and even managed to botch a trade. General Manager Kelly McCrimmon hinted that their inactivity was due to positive injury progress with Mark Stone, Alec Martinez, and Robin Lehner. The problem for the Golden Knights is, with the team currently struggling and losing points in the standings, they might not have the luxury of waiting for reinforcements.
Speaking of those reinforcements, the botched trade will make that more difficult. The Golden Knights attempted to trade forward Evgenii Dadonov to the Ducks in a salary-cap savings move that would enable them to get the likes of Stone, Martinez, etc. back before the start of the playoffs when salary-cap rules still apply. However, due to some errors made with no-trade lists and the timing of the actual transaction, it’s likely that the trade will be vetoed. The Golden Knights froze at the deadline and it could cost them a chance at the playoffs.
San Jose made a somewhat puzzling move by resigning Tomáš Hertl to an eight-year contract extension before the deadline, locking up another middle-aged player on a long-term deal. For years now, the Sharks have been reluctant to engage in any type of rebuild or retool and they seem to be holding true to that philosophy going forward.
Teams who are still in but fading out of the playoff race like the Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, and New York Islanders, didn’t improve their rosters or sell their expiring contracts, leaving them essentially in no man’s land as the season winds down. The assumption is, these franchises are going to be doing their fair share of business in the offseason and are content with letting the year shake out, playoffs or not.
All in all, there was plenty of activity on and leading up to deadline day. It’s one of the most exciting times of the year for fans and one of the most stressful for players and their families. For teams, it’s a delicate balance of doing too much to your roster and negatively affecting the chemistry of the locker room or doing too little and not rewarding your players by giving them an extra boost for the stretch run.
All of the action on and leading up to the deadline set up what’s sure to be a tight race to the finish of the 2022 NHL Season.
