Western powers stockpile arms, as expected
NHL GMs say trade deadline arms race in the Western Conference no surprise
Kevin Cheveldayoff joked the trade deadline was “just another Monday.” It wasn’t.
The point the Winnipeg Jets general manager was attempting to make, however, was nothing comes easy in the NHL.
Cheveldayoff was the busiest GM on Feb. 25 — making six trades in all — including acquiring Kevin Hayes from the New York Rangers.
That swap was just one of a number of big moves in the Western Conference as teams in the upper echelon loaded up for what they hope will be a long spring.
“Whether you add people or you don’t, it’s an extremely tough league to win in,” Cheveldayoff said at this week’s GM meetings in Boca Raton, Fla. “Adding or not adding does not guarantee you anything.”
The favourites out West did plenty of adding. The Vegas Golden Knights nabbed the biggest fish by getting winger Mark Stone from the Ottawa Senators and then signing him to an eight-year contract extension. Winnipeg secured Hayes, while the Nashville Predators scooped up Wayne Simmonds from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The San Jose Sharks snagged Gustav Nyquist from the Detroit Red Wings the night before the deadline as another pending unrestricted free agent forward moved to a team eyeing a playoff run.
“I think it was as expected,” Sharks GM Doug Wilson said of the West’s arms race. “You’ve got a lot of competition, you’ve got really good hockey teams.”
Wilson did the remodelling to his roster last season when he acquired Evander Kane from the Buffalo Sabres and then again in September when he swung the deal that brought Erik Karlsson from Ottawa to San Jose.
“Teams had identified what they were looking to add,” Wilson said. “It’s not surprising with the quality of the teams in the West that they all wanted to add.”
Cheveldayoff was unlucky to lose defenceman Josh Morrissey to injury the day before the deadline, but fortunate in that he still had time change course and add blue-line depth — something the Toronto Maple Leafs weren’t able to do when Jake Gardiner and Travis Dermott went down following Feb. 25.
“So I guess that’s the emphasis of trade deadline: you take a snapshot of where you are and if there’s something you think can help or does help and the price is right, you do it. But again, there is no guarantees of anything.”
The Calgary Flames, who sit first in the conference, added defence depth of their own, but otherwise didn’t make a splash after GM Brad Treliving did most of his work in off-season with the draft-day blockbuster that saw Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin acquired for a package that included Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland.
“Those teams certainly added some real good players, but you can’t let that drive decisions,” Treliving said of the Jets, Knights and Predators. “We went into (the deadline) saying if we could make our team better or help our team without taking anything off it — and doing it at a price that we were comfortable with — then sure we’d like to do it. But those opportunities weren’t there.”
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