Knights strike at the buzzer
Leave it to the defending Stanley Cup champion Knights to pull off what could be the biggest deal at the NHL’s trade deadline on Friday.
After the Hurricanes and Panthers slugged it out in adding talent to shore up their respective rosters with offense and experience, the Golden Knights sneaked in under the deadline to land Tomas Hertl in a trade with the Sharks.
Hertl, who has enjoyed nine 15-goal seasons in his 11-year career, provides the Knights offensive depth down the middle, and joins a retooled team that added defenseman Noah Hanifin in a trade with the Flames on Wednesday and acquired forward Anthony Mantha in a trade with Capitals on Tuesday.
The only downside for the slumping Golden Knights, who have dropped four straight and are 2-8-1 in their past 11, is waiting a few more weeks while Hertl continues recovering form having left knee surgery last month.
In the meantime, the Panthers and Hurricanes — the teams who met in the Eastern Conference finals in a series Florida won in a four-game sweep — were major players on the trade front.
After acquiring scoring winger Jake Guentzel from the Penguins in a blockbuster deal late Thursday, the Hurricanes kicked off the action Friday by adding center Evgeny Kuznetsov in a trade with the Capitals.
Guentzel is eager to join the Hurricanes and get back on the ice, with the trade coming as he is on the verge of returning after missing nearly a month with an upper body injury.
“You know what the team’s done in the past and how close they’ve been,” Guentzel said Friday. “This is a special team.”
The Panthers followed suit. Two days after landing scoring winger Vladimir Tarasenko from the Senators, the Panthers added depth and leadership in landing the Sabres’ Kyle Okposo. The Sabres acquired minor-league defenseman Calle Sjalin in a deal that provides the 35-year-old Sabres captain a chance to compete in the playoffs in what could be his final NHL season.
“I think they know it at this point that we are going to do everything we can to help them do their thing,” Panthers GM Bill Zito said of helping a team that entered Friday leading the NHL with 43 wins and 90 points, and last year lost the Cup Final to the Knights in five games.
“It’s their team. It’s their success,” he added. “But to the extent that we can help, I think the guys appreciate it. And they know that we’re all in it with them.”
Unofficially, because the NHL hasn’t released its totals yet, 23 trades were completed on Friday involving 32 players and 22 draft selections. That compares with 21 trades involving 34 players and 14 draft picks moving on deadline day last year.
The Bruins became the last of the top contenders in the East to add, getting three-time Cup champion Patrick Maroon from the Wild for young forward Luke Toporowski and a conditional 2026 sixthround pick.
The Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers added blue-line depth by acquiring Chad Ruhwedel from a Penguins team that is suddenly entering a rebuilding mode. They also got center Jack Roslovic from the Blue Jackets.