UFC 299 on Sportsnet

Trade deadline season has come and gone for another year.

While deadline day itself is, of course, about eight hours of craziness each winter, deadline season can vary in length because it unofficially kicks off whenever the first big domino falls.

This year, deadline season began in earnest when the Calgary Flames flipped Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31. Two days later, Sean Monahan was being moved from Montreal to Winnipeg and, since then, we’ve been on high alert.

It’s finally time to take a breath as the bell has rung for another year and general managers have been instructed to put down their phones.

To find a Stanley Cup winner that did not make a meaningful add during trade deadline season, you have to go back to the 2019 St. Louis Blues. And that team is likely an outlier because it was still climbing into a playoff spot during February of that year and likely didn’t even view itself as a real contender until right before the Feb. 19 deadline that winter.

In 2020, Tampa Bay acquired both Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman and those two formed two-thirds of a line — along with Yanni Gourde — that was vital to the Bolts’ 2020 and ’21 titles. In 2022, Colorado grabbed Artturi Lehkonen at the deadline and he scored eight playoff goals — more than all but three Avs — including an OT marker that sent them to the Final. Last year, it was Vegas acquiring Ivan Barbashev, who repaid them with 18 points in 22 post-season contests.

That’s a perfect segue to the here and now, because you can’t start a conversation about winners and losers of the 2024 deadline anywhere else than with the defending champions.

Winners

Vegas Golden Knights

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Quit your carping; Vegas is well within its rights to use all the long-term injured reserve cap space it possesses.

You’re just mad because your team isn’t this awesome.

The 11^th-hour move to acquire Tomas Hertl from the San Jose Sharks was something else. The six-foot-three centre — who’s currently injured — is going to make Vegas that much more difficult to line up with down the middle.

Noah Hanifin was the most needle-moving defenceman available and we might yet learn in coming days that the 27-year-old is officially re-upping with the defending champs.

The addition of Anthony Mantha with half his salary retained by Washington is a fun dice-roll.

Someday, the bill for the good times is going to come due in the desert. Between now and then, the Golden Knights are determined to hang as many banners as possible.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets may have been on the list even if they stood pat on deadline day itself. Monahan has been a wonderful fit in Manitoba, posting eight goals in 13 games with the squad.

Still, Winnipeg sits tied for 17^th in the NHL with 3.11 goals per game and even since Monahan joined the club, the Jets are 16^th with 3.0 goals per outing.

Enter Tyler Tofolli from the New Jersey Devils.

Nobody traded during deadline season has more goals than Tofolli’s 26 this season.

The right-shot winger has 88 career playoff games on his resume, two trips to the Final and one Cup ring. Heck, he even eliminated the Jets from the second round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs with an overtime goal for the Montreal Canadiens.

The Jets added a top-six winger and a 2C without dipping into their prospect cupboard and coughing up just a single first-round pick. Manitobans have to be thrilled with GM Kevin Cheveldayoff’s work.

Carolina Hurricanes

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What happens when you lose the Eastern Conference Final in four straight one-goal games, including two OT contests?

You go get some goals.

Not only did Carolina land Jake Guentzel — the most talented goal-getting player available at the deadline, albeit one who is hurt right now — but it was also able to send money out the door because Pittsburgh valued a player, in Michael Bunting, who was not working out in Carolina after inking a three-year UFA deal there last summer.

The Canes are also taking a complete flyer on centre Evgeny Kuznetsov, who will count for a cap hit of $3.9 million through next season. It’s a boom-or-bust play, but Kuznetsov is still just 31 years old and obviously has some Cup know-how on his resume from a 2018 run with the Capitals that was Conn Smythe-worthy.

Last year, Carolina lost one of its top gunners on the eve of the post-season when Andrei Svechnikov tore up his knee in March. This team is determined not to get burned by a lack of scoring again.

Edmonton Oilers

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There wasn’t a lot of centres available on the market this winter and even if you don’t think Henrique is a clear No. 3 after Lindholm and Monahan, he’s still a savvy player who can play in the middle or the flank and knows his way around every zone. Edmonton is forever in search of middle-class guys to support its megastars and Henrique certainly qualifies.

It’s always nice to get a cherry on top and for, basically, the cost of a 2024 first-round pick, Edmonton got Anaheim to toss in sandpapery forward Sam Carrick with Anaheim, retaining 50 per cent on both Carrick’s and Henrique’s salaries.

Buffalo Sabres

You always love seeing a good old-fashioned, one-for-one hockey trade in the middle of the buy/sell deadline madness. Buffalo is well stocked at centre, so it was dealing from a position of strength when it shipped Casey Mittelstadt to Colorado for a player who addressed a position of need, defenceman Bowen Byram. The latter was a fourth-overall pick just five years ago and endured very trying concussion issues early in his career. Here’s hoping — for the sake of the player, first and foremost — he can stay healthy and become his best self on a Sabres blueline that now has three guys who were top-four picks (Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, of course, were both No. 1 selections).

For what it’s worth, Colorado — which picked up Mittelstadt and acquired Sean Walker for its blue line while shipping out misfit Ryan Johansen — had a nice few days, too.

Dallas Stars

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There’s been so much activity in the past week it’s easy to forget Dallas got the defence market going when it jumped in and acquired Chris Tanev on Feb. 28. The Stars did not surrender a first-round pick and are still benefiting from a double-retention that sees Calgary and New Jersey absorb 75 per cent of Tanev’s expiring cap hit.

The right-shot defenceman plays a lay-it-on-the-line style all post-season contenders value. He will be a mainstay in the Dallas top four from now through — the Stars hope — a deep playoff run.

Kyle Okposo

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The 35-year-old is in his 16^th NHL season and has played on a team that finished as high as second in its division just once. That was in 2015 and still resulted in a first-round loss with the Islanders.

The veteran played his 1,000^th game earlier this year with the Sabres and now gets a chance to show he can still help the bottom of a lineup on the league-leading Florida Panthers.

Losers

Late Sellers

Especially in its final days and hours, the 2024 deadline bent hard in favour of the buyers. Some players were always going to fetch a first, but when you see someone like Toffoli — with half his salary retained — go for less than that, or a proven goal-scorer like Jason Zucker land in Nashville for basically nothing because Nashville ate all the money, you know the market is favouring the buyers.

New Jersey Devils

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Picking up a goalie like Jake Allen was a no-brainier for Jersey. The head-scratching part is why it didn’t happen two months ago when the team still had enough runway to make the playoffs.

In the specific case of Allen, maybe the Canadiens weren’t willing to retain salary until now. Or maybe the Devils just stayed big-game hunting too long with Jacob Markstrom.

Hey, Jersey has Allen for next year at a reduced salary and the late move to acquire Kaapo Kahkonen from San Jose shows you the Devils are just going full scorched earth in the crease.

Still, the optics of this — trading for the goalie(s) you’ve needed forever far too late and only after you seemed to raise a white flag by shipping goal-scorer Toffoli out — must be tough for Devils fans to endure.

New York Islanders

The Isles are on a five-game winning streak and within striking distance of both Eastern Conference wild-card clubs. General manager Lou Lamoriello couldn’t find a single body to help this squad out? Nashville, a wild-card club in the West, picked up Zucker for a sixth-round pick. Sure, the Isles didn’t have much wiggle room under the cap, but this is a veteran team that is living for the here and now. A boost of any kind surely would have been appreciated in the room.

For what it’s worth, this is the fourth straight deadline day Lamoriello hasn’t closed a single deal.