Another year of trade deadline rumors, another year of chaos paired with heavy traffic at the trade front. As per usual, the high-end contenders did their job at loading up to go for it all. The rebuilders wanted to add more assets to build for the future. So, who won and who lost the trade deadline? Let’s get to our winners and losers.
Winners
Vegas Golden Knights
If there is one team that does an excellent job at playing the villain role in the NHL, it’s the Vegas Golden Knights. Yes, fans are going to be irate at them exploiting the LTIR loophole on a yearly basis, but a lacerated spleen from Mark Stone is not an injury to take lightly and using this loophole on the salary cap is not illegal by any means.
When a team has an owner and a front office that is passionate about winning games by any means necessary, it shows how successful of a franchise they are, with playoff appearances in five of their first six years of existence, gunning for not only a sixth playoff appearance in Year 7, but also a successful Stanley Cup defense. They’re not stopping at anything to get what they want and need.
Bringing in third line scorer Anthony Mantha, top four defenseman Noah Hanifin, and, with the cherry on top, two-way center Tomas Hertl in the days leading up to the deadline and only give up the first round picks from 2025 and 2026, second and fifth round picks from 2024, mid-round picks from 2025 and 2026, and prospects David Edstrom and Daniil Miromanov is a huge success. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Even if they don’t repeat as Stanley Cup champions this year, they’re set up for long-term success with Hanifin and Hertl in the mold. While Hertl is currently on the IR, he’s expected to be back before the regular season ends. Even better is that he has six years left on his current contract. Hanifin could basically take over the role left behind by Alec Martinez in the last few years. They’re going to stay competitive no matter what.
Colorado Avalanche
The biggest question surrounding the Avalanche is how they address their second line center issue. They thought they had it fixed when they traded for Ryan Johansen, yet it still persisted. They appeared to have solved it when they got Casey Mittelstadt in a one-for-one deal that sent Bowen Byram the other way, while also successfully filling in the hole left behind by Byram with Sean Walker while dealing Johansen.
Don’t get it twisted: The Avalanche are still in win-now mode, and they will do everything they can to get back in the Stanley Cup Final. Both Joe Sakic and Chris MacFarland recognize it, and a Stanley Cup cannot be reached without a quality second line center. Mittelstadt has a lot of upside left in him at 25 years old, and Walker is a mobile defenseman and plays a balanced game.
Everything that made Byram the fourth overall pick in 2019 is what also made him the asset that Colorado gave up to get Mittelstadt—he had the potential to run a first team power play and eat minutes. However, the Avs already have a duo of defenseman who can do that in Cale Makar and Devon Toews.
Even with these additions, they were not finished there. Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin are underrated physical bottom six forwards that can boost a team’s depth, putting the Avs in good position for another Stanley Cup run.
Carolina Hurricanes
In the last few years, the Hurricanes have dominated the regular season behind elite defense and the team committing to the philosophy that head coach Rod Brind’Amour brings in. Yet they fall short in the playoffs every time because they don’t have a game-changing goal scorer. The only 30-goal scorer they had before the deadline was Sebastian Aho.
Enter Jake Guentzel, a former 40-goal scorer coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins and the biggest fish that nearly every contender was going after. This changes the trajectory of the Canes, considering they’re a franchise that doesn’t like rental assets. However, Guentzel comes in with 34 goals in 58 playoff games, the 6th-highest scoring rate in Stanley Cup playoff history.
Nothing is set in stone about an extension, but given that Carolina is going with a Cup or bust mentality given that this is the most crucial season in their franchise right now—they have 14 players set to hit the free agency market this summer—that they gave up Michael Bunting, two picks, and three prospects that are not ranked inside their top five, is a win for their books.
Getting Evgeny Kuznetsov on a low risk bet at 50% retained salary caps it off more than nicely for them. While his stats have been down from previous seasons, he’s still good at passing the puck and killing penalties. He also, like Guentzel, is a proven playoff performer and a previous Stanley Cup champion. While he’s not the player he used to be, that doesn’t mean he can’t find a suitable role for him in Carolina.
Winnipeg Jets
When the Jets acquired Sean Monahan from the Montreal Canadiens during the All-Star break, they wanted a boost to their offense that already boasts playmakers Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Nikolaj Ehlers. While they drew first blood among the Central Division teams in making trades, after seeing the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars make upgrades, Kevin Cheveldayoff had to answer. And he did.
Before the trade deadline, the Jets’ power play ranked 24th in the league, the worst among teams currently in a playoff spot. This is where Tyler Toffoli comes in. He’s an eight-time 20-goal scorer who should secure his third 30-goal campaign in the coming weeks, and he helps in this department.
In a complete 180 from what was supposed to be the Jets rebuilding after last season’s first round exit where they were supposed to trade Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, them signing them to matching seven-year extensions may have indicated that they were going on a retool. But fast forward to now, and they’re still one of the best teams in the Central Division.
Cheveldayoff addressed the big need in the span of a month, rewarded his players for this successful season, and put them in a position to get them onto a potential deep playoff run.
Dallas Stars
While Dallas didn’t acquire anyone of note within the final 72 hours before the deadline, they didn’t really need to do so. Sometimes, they just need a little shakeup, and they did that by getting Chris Tanev. He’s not afraid to sacrifice his body to block shots, and plays with a warrior mentality with his stay-at-home mentality. His penalty killing pedigree also adds to him being one of the best defensive defensemen available leading up to the deadline.
To add Tanev to a core that has young talents like Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley, and now Logan Stankoven being key offensive factors along with a star core of Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Roope Hintz, not a lot needs to be tweaked. This is an elite Stanley Cup contender the way they are built, and while Tanev is not the flashiest player, the Stars don’t need him to be.
Tanev may arguably be the most impactful addition on the defensive side of the puck in this year’s trade deadline. And because he is strictly a rental addition at the deadline, his asking price was lower, and Jim Nill didn’t have to give up a first round pick to acquire him.
Calgary Flames
Sometimes, winners from the trade deadline aren’t necessarily playoff contenders. It can be rebuilding teams instead looking for good returns for some of the top trade targets available on the block.
People can nitpick about the returns they got for Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin, but to make things clear, this is a team that is in a transition phase. What these types of teams do is sell off on veterans that are on expiring contracts to get them on contenders while fetching draft picks and prospects.
That’s exactly what Calgary did with not only Tanev and Hanifin, but also Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm earlier this season. They acknowledged that they have to get further away from short-term playoff contention to get closer to long-term success. In trading away all four of them and Tyler Toffoli last offseason, they acquired lots of assets.
In that span, Craig Conroy, in his first year as a general manager, acquired two first round picks, a second, four thirds, a fourth, a fifth, Yegor Sharangovich, Andrei Kuzmenko, and prospects Artem Grushnikov, Daniil Miromanov, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Joni Jurmo. In going younger, they prioritized the bigger picture.
Losers
San Jose Sharks
This year’s trade deadline initially looked like a promising one for the Sharks. Mike Grier started it out with picking up a third round pick and Jack Thompson from the Tampa Bay Lightning when dealing away Anthony Duclair.
Then came the Tomas Hertl trade. The good news is that they got out 83% of his cap hit through the next six seasons for their best player, who will be 36 at the end of the deal. The bad? They have now used up all three of their salary retention slots until the end of the 2025 season and will occupy two until 2027. Plus, even though they got Vegas’ 2023 first round draft choice David Edstrom and their 2025 first round pick, the two third round picks involved in the deal were going Vegas’ way, not San Jose’s.
The trio of Hertl, Erik Karlsson, and Brent Burns will take up more than $5 million in dead cap next season, but the bigger problem is that the Sharks can’t retain salary on any deals until the 2026 season.
And if that wasn’t enough, Grier made a head-scratcher in acquiring Vitek Vanecek, who carries a $3.4 million cap hit next season, while sending Kaapo Kahkonen to New Jersey. Even if Vanecek regains his confidence with the Sharks, and even if it was a move they made to get to the salary floor, the Sharks could have spent that money on a player who could be flipped by next year’s deadline instead of arguably the worst goaltender in the NHL this season.
Los Angeles Kings
When one thinks of playoff contenders that are wanting to cement themselves at the top, some could have thought of the Kings doing that when they acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois in the offseason. Two problems: First, it came at the cost of key depth pieces in Gabe Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari, who have all been crucial to the Jets’ success this season, and they arguably could have been in a better position had they acquired Connor Hellebuyck.
To say that Dubois has disappointed with the Kings would be an understatement. When he was signed to an eight-year contract with them, the expectation was that he would emerge as a potential top line center. He hasn’t even come close to living up to his contract in just his first season. Goaltending has been okay for them between Cam Talbot and David Rittich, but they can only do so much to help.
When they had the urgency to fire Todd McLellan halfway through the season, one would think that a team committed to winning would make some upgrades, especially since the other Western Conference did so. When they tried going after Linus Ullmark, Ullmark himself nixed the deal, invoking his no-trade clause.
Outside of that, the Kings were all crickets at the trade deadline. Now they have to hope that this roster is good enough to win a series in the playoffs. But they’ll have to get there first—both the Golden Knights and Predators added at the deadline and project to be better now than where they were before the deadline.
