Not all trades are made equal
The NHL’S trade deadline has come and gone. And while the quantity of deals that occurred was significantly less than in previous years, it is the quality that really matters.
Here is a look at the winners and losers.
WINNERS KYLE DUBAS
The checklist is complete. The Leafs added top-six grit (Nick Foligno), forward depth (Riley Nash), defensive depth (Ben Hutton) and goaltending depth (David Rittich) before the deadline. And they did it without having to give away a prospect or a roster player. Give Dubas credit. This team was already good enough to win the North Division and contend for a Stanley Cup. But he still refused to sit back. Instead, he went all-in and acquired the type of pieces that the Leafs will need if they happen to meet Tampa, Boston or Vegas in the conference or Stanley Cup Final. There’s no guarantee Toronto will get that far. But regardless of how this season ends, Dubas deserves credit for giving the team the best chance to go all the way.
TAYLOR HALL
The former MVP, who has spent his career on non-contending teams in Buffalo, Arizona, New Jersey and Edmonton, is finally going to a legitimate Stanley Cup hopeful. Hall, who will not be playing on the top line in Boston, is there for secondary scoring. He’s ranked somewhere between David Krejci and Jake Debrusk on the Bruins depth chart. That should ease a ton of pressure for a player who admitted that his confidence is at an all-time low after scoring just two goals this year.
CAPOLOGISTS
I don’t know if commissioner Gary Bettman will be happy with how the salary cap was bent, warped and circumvented in the days leading up to the deadline. But as a hockey fan, you had to appreciate the lengths in which teams were able to make deals in a year where they were under serious financial constraints. We saw things that we hadn’t seen before: injured players were acquired in order to create artificial cap space, draft picks were traded in return for salary retention, and in some cases money was laundered through an additional team acting as a broker. This might not have been in the spirit of why the salary cap was created. But aside from the teams who weren’t smart enough to get creative, does anyone really care?
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
In landing David Savard in a three-way trade with Detroit and Columbus, the defending champs picked up the best defenceman at the deadline. The shot-blocking specialist, who will partner with Victor Hedman, gives the Lightning the deepest blue line in the NHL. Considering they also have the best goalie in the NHL, preventing goals shouldn’t be a problem. And Tampa Bay is not yet done. Nikita Kucherov, who has not played a game this year after undergoing hip surgery, is expected to be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs. In other words, the Lightning remain the team to beat.
BOSTON BRUINS
While Toronto and Tampa Bay had to include a firstround pick in order to get a team to retain salary, the Bruins managed to acquire Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar from the Sabres in exchange for depth forward Anders Bjork and just a
second-rounder. Talk about a steal. The addition of Hall to the second line finally gives David Krejci someone to play with. But don’t sleep on Lazar, who has more goals (5) this season than Hall (2) and Bjork (2) combined. Meanwhile, the addition of defenceman Mike Reilly from Ottawa comes at a time when Charlie Mcavoy, Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk are all injured.
LOSERS KEVYN ADAMS
This is why the Sabres have been consistently awful. This is why the team should have hired a president of hockey operations before the trade deadline. It’s one thing to blow the season and miss the playoffs. It’s another to blow the trade deadline and miss out on the kind of return that eventually leads to a future playoff spot. While Columbus picked up a pair of firstround picks for Nick Foligno and David Savard, Buffalo traded Eric Staal, Taylor Hall and Brandon Montour for a second, two thirds, a fifth and Anders Bjork. That’s a huge loss. Before Jack Eichel gets moved in the off-season, the Sabres need to make sure they have a capable GM who knows how to get back a decent return.
WINNIPEG JETS
A big part of the trade deadline is the ability to keep pace. I’m not sure acquiring depth defenceman Jordie Benn does that for Winnipeg. Granted, the Jets made their big move earlier in the year when they acquired Pierre-luc Dubois from the Blue Jackets. But this was an opportunity lost for a team that is built up front and in net, but is still a top4 defenceman away from matching up against the top contenders. They could have used David Savard or Brandon Montour or even Vince Dunn. Instead, what you see is what you get. And right now, it might not be good enough to get past Toronto.
EDMONTON OILERS
While GM Ken Holland was telling everyone that he didn’t have the cap space to make a significant deal, Toronto, Tampa Bay and Boston were creating cap space by acquiring injured players and/or convincing teams into retaining as much as 75 per cent in salary by tossing in an extra draft pick. Why the Oilers didn’t do something similar by acquiring an impact forward like Taylor Hall or Carl Soderberg was a huge miss. That is, unless the Oilers plan on turning defenceman Dmitry Kulikov into the left-winger that Connor Mcdavid has been searching for his entire career.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Taylor Hall would have looked great on a line with Sidney Crosby. But a year after acquiring Patrick Marleau at the deadline, the Penguins once again went with another veteran in 36-yearold Jeff Carter, whose best days appear to be behind him. Apparently, they have a type. Or Hall, who had a full-movement clause, refused to waive it for Pittsburgh, something that Brian Burke insinuated in an interview with Sportsnet: “We’re the Pittsburgh Penguins,” said the president of hockey ops, “and we’re not here to kiss anyone’s butt to play here.” Apparently, Burke forgot this isn’t 2017 anymore.
SPORTSNET/TSN
The trade for David Savard was two days before the deadline. The trade for Nick Foligno happened the night before the deadline. And while the Taylor Hall trade technically occurred on deadline day, it was so early in the morning that TSN and Sportsnet had not yet begun their wall-to-wall coverage. It also didn’t help that Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton and Los Angeles’ Alex Iafallo both re-signed extensions with their teams, which resulted in both networks spending the bulk of the day analyzing why the Senators claimed Victor Mete off waivers and whether Tampa Bay or San Jose won the Fredrik Claesson for Magnus Chrona trade. Maybe next year the NHL should put a two-week freeze on all roster moves leading up to the deadline.