This post is a continuation for a similar ranking I posted nearly five years ago. Back then, I went through all the significant pending UFAs that were acquired at the trade deadlines between 2015 and 2018, and evaluated whether the rental acquisitions were good or bad. The 15 trades that I went through weren’t exactly the prettiest, as most of them were clear failures and only a select few were reasonably priced and ended up being good business. So, it’s time for part 2 – this time going through years 2019-23 in a similar fashion. But first, a couple of notes:
- only trades for pending UFAs (=”rentals) that involved significant returns are covered. Significant is subjective, but here it means either a first-round pick/recently drafted 1st round prospect or 2-3 decent future assets. In short, the return has to have been enough to be noticeable.
- sign-and-trades are not covered, as they aren’t rentals. Notable ones in the time frame include Mark Stone (2019), JG Pageau (2020), and Hampus Lindholm (2022).
- no ill will intended to any fanbase. Even you, Florida fans.
2019
WPG-NYR: Kevin Hayes for 2019 1st, 2022 4th, Brendan Lemieux.
Starting off with my Jets this time. In an attempt to fix their woes at the 2C position, they opted for spending a first and a prospect in the second year in a row. 13 points in 20 games in the regular season wasn’t terrible, but the same cannot necessarily be said about a first round exit before losing Hayes as a free agent. We’re still dealing with that hole at 2C, by the way.
Verdict: fail. The classic outcome.
CBJ-OTT: Ryan Dzingel for 2020 2nd, 2021 2nd, Anthony Duclair.
Dzingel was just one part of Columbus’ madness during the 2019 TDL. As is often the case with rentals, he was a decent player with a knack for scoring – nothing spectacular, but good anyway. Columbus decided to pay spectacularly for that good. It’s never a good sign when you trade away a player who ends up outscoring your rental down the stretch – that’s what happened here with Duclair. Dzingel went on to totally disappear in the playoffs and then left for nothing – meanwhile, Ottawa got another 23-goal season out of Duclair before letting him go (sadly, they didn’t use either of the picks).
Verdict: fail. A gross overpayment with very little in terms of redeeming qualities.
CBJ-OTT: Matt Duchene, Julius Bergman for 2019 1st, Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson (+cond. 2020 1st, condition not filled).
And here’s the other big part of the Columbus fiasco. Given that Columbus “needed” to make a push for the Cup to show Panarin and Bobrovsky that they were serious in Ohio, this certainly was a move that made headlines. And as with so many other big TDL moves, nothing good came out of it. Duchene did play well in the playoffs, but if you’re acquiring the best rental of the year, you’re not going to be content with a second-round exit. In fact, that sweep against Tampa might have been the worst possible outcome, given how they have been managed since then.
By the way, they didn’t only lose Duchene and Dzingel, but Panarin and Bobrovsky too. Seriousness in Ohio remains a work in progress.
Verdict: fail. Swing and a miss.
2020
EDM-DET: Andreas Athanasiou, Ryan Kuffner for 2020 2nd, 2021 2nd, Sam Gagner
I don’t think many teams planned their rental acquisitions around COVID, but it still doesn’t make this deal good. Edmonton pretty much incinerated two high draft picks here, not getting anything tangible out of “a winger for McDavid”. That’s something I have never properly understood: if you’re looking at, with no intention for being mean, “bargain-bin solutions” for McDavid’s linemates, why are you paying a premium for them? Well, at least they learned their lesson – Hyman’s working out quite alright.
Verdict: fail. Oilers fans might not want to look at who was picked with the 2020 2nd rounder.
VAN-LAK: Tyler Toffoli for 2020 2nd, Tim Schaller, Tyler Madden (+cond. 2022 4th, condition not met)
If you want scoring and playoff experience, who better to look for than Tyler Toffoli? I can appreciate the idea: Vancouver had a young team and a decent prospect pool to boot – adding a more experienced option made sense. Sure, Madden was trending nicely in the NCAA, and a second rounder isn’t exactly nothing, but what could go wrong? Before the pandemic, he even went point per game with his new team!
… four points in seven playoff games, first-round exit, directly to UFA. Have I heard this story before?
Verdict: fail, but perhaps not as bad as the previous cases.
2021
VGK-CHI-SJS: Mattias Janmark, Nick DeSimone for 2021 2nd, 2022 3rd, 2022 5th
This three-way deal technically fills the criteria, even if the structure makes it a bit unclear. At this point, we all know how Vegas rolls at the deadline: see UFA, get UFA, give picks. What Vegas also does pretty admirably is keeping the rentals who play well, and that’s what they did with Janmark: after eight points in 16 games in a rather limited, role, they extended him for another year, netting them further 67 games of service for their pick investment (hilariously, no playoffs that time around).
Verdict: pass. Janmark isn’t some phenom on the ice, but they got what you could expect from a middle 6 forward, and extended him to get more the year after. Not great, but definitely not terrible either.
BOS-BUF: Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar for 2021 2nd, Anders Bjork
A textbook example of a textbook organisation schooling a terrible one in a trade. Buffalo invested in Hall with the clear intention of renting him at the TDL; however, giving him a NMC likely wasn’t the brightest idea of all time, as this made it all too hard for Adams to get a brilliant trade return for him. Boston took advantage: they didn’t get much out of him in the first 11 playoff games, but they did get two reasonably priced and successful seasons out of him afterwards, with short playoff runs to boot. 14 points in 16 games down the stretch isn’t a bad outcome either. While better suited for attracting 1st OA picks, I think this is our first clear success.
Verdict: pass. Three playoff runs for the price of one is a decent haul.
TOR-CBJ-SJS: Nick Foligno, Stefan Noesen for 202 1st, 2021 4th, 2022 4th
We’re discussing Toronto and the playoffs in the same sentence?
Verdict: fail. For all the crap the Leafs have gone through, this is among the worst individual mistakes.
TBL-CBJ-DET: David Savard, Brian Lashoff for 2021 1st, 2021 4th, 2022 3rd
A rare success story where a top rental ended up on the Cup-winning team. Playing a very limited third-pair role, you could very easily chalk this trade as a gross overpayment for a player who simply coasted to a win alongside the Hedmans and Points of the world, but… actually, that’s pretty much what it was. Brisebois hasn’t shied away from overpaying for literally whoever happens to be available – he has been wildly successful with non-rentals, so perhaps there’s something there after all. Savard left for the Habs right after the Cup win, and we can now see what kind of a stoppable force he is there. Still…
Verdict: pass. No matter how bad you overpay at the deadline, you’ll get a pass anyway for winning the whole thing. That’s how the league thinks.
NYI-NJD: Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac for 2021 1st, 2022 4th, AJ Greer, Mason Jobst
The Isles have been one of the better playoff teams in recent years, and they haven’t exactly been averse to adding rentals. A double whammy of Palmieri and Zajac wasn’t overly impactful in the grand scheme of things: Zajac was washed, and while Palmieri did shine against the Bruins in the second round, he handed in a total vanishing act against the Lightning in the ECF. Palmieri was extended afterwards, but his production has been lacklustre ever since.
Verdict: fail, by the thinnest of margins. Keeping your own rental after the run is obviously a bonus, but has Palmieri been worth keeping? That’s up for debate, and it will also be the determining factor for whether you like this deal or not. Zajac was as useless as it gets, which is a minus. The picks haven’t had time to amount to much yet, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
2022
NYR-WPG: Andrew Copp, 2023 6th for 2021st, 2022 2nd, 2023 5th, Morgan Barron
The Rangers solidified an already deep forward group with a Swiss army knife from Michigan, who was pretty obviously going to be rented away. After having a career year already in Winnipeg, Copp turned up the heat after the trade, scoring 18 in 16 down the stretch and putting up further 14 points in the playoffs. Pretty good for a middle six forward. Due to their playoff success, the price turned out to be quite hefty: two high picks and Barron isn’t a small payment, even though the Rangers had little use for Barron’s services.
Verdict: pass, but barely so. This is, ironically, quite close to what the Jets got from Paul Stastny in 2018: however, Stastny played a tad bit better and wasn’t as expensive to the Jets. However, I won’t discount the heavy lifting Copp did during the run, and therefore, the deal remains a pass. Perhaps it’s better that NYR didn’t keep Copp, after all.
STL-DET: Nick Leddy, Luke Witkowski for 2023 2nd, Jake Walman, Oskar Sundqvist
Verdict: fail, and the playoff results hardly matter here. A team who lets Pietrangelo and Dunn go for nothing shouldn’t be renting anyone to fill the gap just two seasons later. They probably shouldn’t be looking at Leddy at all nor extend him to a sizable deal afterwards, and to top it all off, they definitely shouldn’t cough up Walman in the trade too, who has been a revelation in Detroit. It goes without saying that a team engaging in this shit hasn’t been saved by Leddy, but the context makes the trade even worse.
TOR-SEA: Mark Giordano, Colin Blackwell for 2022 2nd, 2023 2nd, 2024 3rd
Toron… to… pla… yoff… run…
Verdict: fail. I see what the idea was, but I also see the outcome. But Leafs fans: worry not. You weren’t anywhere close to the worst team at this TDL.
FLA-PHI: Claude Giroux, German Rubtsov, Connor Bunnaman, 2024 5th for 2024 1st, 2023 3rd, Owen Tippett
Florida took a leaf out of Columbus’ 2019 book and went for all the rentals in one go. Obviously, that was a dreadful idea – but to Giroux’ credit, at least he held his end of the deal: make plays, put up points. In other words, he was an actually good player – making Florida’s forward group unbelievably stacked with talent. However, with the investment and losing him directly to UFA, can’t say this was a success.
Verdict: fail. As the saying goes: if something ain’t broke, spend all your draft capital fixing it.
FLA-MTL: Ben Chiarot for 2023 1st, 2022 4th, Ty Smilanic
Aside from Florida’s GM and a select few Montreal fans who were blinded by the 2021 finals run, everybody else knew what was going to happen. A sub-NHL level defenseman going up against the top Atlantic teams… it wasn’t quite meant to be.
Verdict: fail. Probably the worst deadline failure since 2015, where the Kings paid a similar amount of assets for Sekera and then missed the entire playoffs. But hey, at least Zito wasn’t stupid enough to give him a 19-million-dollar extension.
CGY-SEA: Calle Järnkrok for 2022 2nd, 2023 3rd, 2024 7th.
Again, we’re trading three picks for bottom-6 depth for some odd reason. Järnkrok, quite predictably, did little for the Flames during the 12 playoff games they managed that year, before leaving for free. Yay.
Verdict: fail. Significantly less boring than the Florida fiasco discussed above, but still ever-so-bad.
COL-ANA: Josh Manson for 2023 2nd, Drew Helleson
A pair of decent futures was given up for a top 4 defenseman like Manson, but I don’t think Avs fans are complaining at this point. Compared to Savard in 2021, Manson had a larger role in Colorado’s defense, even though his minutes dropped throughout the run. And with Manson receiving a hard-earned extension in July 2022, I reckon we have a pretty clear case of a…
Verdict: …pass.
2023
Finally, the madness of the 2023 deadline awaits us.
NYR-STL: Vladimir Tarasenko, Niko Mikkola for 2023 1st, 2024 4th, Samuel Blais, Hunter Skinner
This deadline was aptly described as an arms race between the top Eastern teams, and the Rangers definitely raced. This pair of pretty high-quality UFA rentals cost them two picks and a prospect, and got them… a first-round exit after seven games. Oh, and they lost both players as UFAs. Not an easy race, by the looks of it.
Verdict: fail. They got an impressive 31 games out of both players in the regular season, which salvages at least… who am I kidding, it doesn’t salvage a damn thing.
TOR-STL-MIN: Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, Josh Pillar for 2023 1st, 2023 3rd, 2024 2nd, 2025 4th , Adam Gaudette, Mikhail Abramov
Phew, that was a lot of assets. Oh, it’s Toronto again?
Verdict: fail. Their best TDL pickup thus far in this post, and he was undoubtedly a good fit, but Leafs fans don’t need to be told that a second-round exit isn’t acceptable, especially not for such a ridiculous price tag. Had they been able to keep him for another year, this could have been an easy pass, but alas, not to be.
BOS-WSH-MTL: Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Andrei Svetlakov for 2023 1st, 2024 3rd, 2025 2nd, 2023 5th
These three-way deals seem to be expensive as hell to pull off, and I think it’s justifiable to raise the bar of expectations accordingly. Orlov did offensive defenseman things as best as he could, but again, seven playoff games and straight to a top rival in the conference as UFA. That’s not ideal. As for Hathaway, not even the Bruins cared, seeing as he didn’t crack an average of 10 minutes a game in the postseason.
Verdict: fail. Fun fact: Patrice Bergeron was a -6 in three games after he returned to the playoffs. Is he the worst team player in NHL history after all?
VGK-STL: Ivan Barbashev for Zach Dean
Stretching the definition of a significant return again, but Dean was a recent first round pick, so let’s have it. Barbashev was a spectacular pick-up, netting a ton of points while fitting into the well-oiled Knight machine. Some of the best deadline acquisitions end up being the ol’ reliable, low-maintenance veterans, and Barbashev was no exception.
Verdict: pass. The perfect deadline pickup?
TBL-NSH: Tanner Jeannot for the 2023 NHL entry draft
Oh, and Cal Foote was also involved. An absolutely awful deal, that might just be based on him shooting at 19.4 % the year before. Just a hunch.
Verdict: fail. I’m eagerly waiting for what Brisebois has in store for us this year.
BOS-DET: Tyler Bertuzzi for 2024 1st, 2025 4th
See Orlov. It’s obviously promising to see that your rentals are productive, but you cannot pay these kinds of assets to immediately fall out in the first round.
Verdict: fail.
LAK-CBJ: Joonas Korpisalo, Vladislav Gavrikov for 2023 1st, 2024 3rd, Jonathan Quick
Our final trade was actually one of the more sensible rental deals of this collection. LA’s goaltending was a dysfunctional mess the whole season, and they managed to address the issue with a well-performing Korpisalo. Gavrikov, on the other hand, was simply a great addition to their D corps; he would have been that for anyone, and they even managed to extend him for another two years. The price they paid for the duo (and dumping Quick) was very reasonable, especially compared to teams coughing up multiple 1sts for their deadline guys. Even though their run was swiftly ended up McDavid and his entourage, they could have done far worse with their assets.
Verdict: pass, but barely so. Only time will tell whether Gavrikov gets to go on a deep run this year. Korpisalo definitely isn’t going to.
Total: 24 trades, 7 passes, 17 fails.
Still not a good outcome for the acquirers, but a slightly better ratio than the 3-12 that we had between 2015 and 2018.
What did we learn? Maybe don’t blow your entire future into Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev this March. It rarely works out, and unless you’re an elite team already, your chances aren’t great. Stick with more reasonable trades.
- only trades for pending UFAs (=”rentals) that involved significant returns are covered. Significant is subjective, but here it means either a first-round pick/recently drafted 1st round prospect or 2-3 decent future assets. In short, the return has to have been enough to be noticeable.
- sign-and-trades are not covered, as they aren’t rentals. Notable ones in the time frame include Mark Stone (2019), JG Pageau (2020), and Hampus Lindholm (2022).
- no ill will intended to any fanbase. Even you, Florida fans.
2019
WPG-NYR: Kevin Hayes for 2019 1st, 2022 4th, Brendan Lemieux.
Starting off with my Jets this time. In an attempt to fix their woes at the 2C position, they opted for spending a first and a prospect in the second year in a row. 13 points in 20 games in the regular season wasn’t terrible, but the same cannot necessarily be said about a first round exit before losing Hayes as a free agent. We’re still dealing with that hole at 2C, by the way.
Verdict: fail. The classic outcome.
CBJ-OTT: Ryan Dzingel for 2020 2nd, 2021 2nd, Anthony Duclair.
Dzingel was just one part of Columbus’ madness during the 2019 TDL. As is often the case with rentals, he was a decent player with a knack for scoring – nothing spectacular, but good anyway. Columbus decided to pay spectacularly for that good. It’s never a good sign when you trade away a player who ends up outscoring your rental down the stretch – that’s what happened here with Duclair. Dzingel went on to totally disappear in the playoffs and then left for nothing – meanwhile, Ottawa got another 23-goal season out of Duclair before letting him go (sadly, they didn’t use either of the picks).
Verdict: fail. A gross overpayment with very little in terms of redeeming qualities.
CBJ-OTT: Matt Duchene, Julius Bergman for 2019 1st, Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson (+cond. 2020 1st, condition not filled).
And here’s the other big part of the Columbus fiasco. Given that Columbus “needed” to make a push for the Cup to show Panarin and Bobrovsky that they were serious in Ohio, this certainly was a move that made headlines. And as with so many other big TDL moves, nothing good came out of it. Duchene did play well in the playoffs, but if you’re acquiring the best rental of the year, you’re not going to be content with a second-round exit. In fact, that sweep against Tampa might have been the worst possible outcome, given how they have been managed since then.
By the way, they didn’t only lose Duchene and Dzingel, but Panarin and Bobrovsky too. Seriousness in Ohio remains a work in progress.
Verdict: fail. Swing and a miss.
2020
EDM-DET: Andreas Athanasiou, Ryan Kuffner for 2020 2nd, 2021 2nd, Sam Gagner
I don’t think many teams planned their rental acquisitions around COVID, but it still doesn’t make this deal good. Edmonton pretty much incinerated two high draft picks here, not getting anything tangible out of “a winger for McDavid”. That’s something I have never properly understood: if you’re looking at, with no intention for being mean, “bargain-bin solutions” for McDavid’s linemates, why are you paying a premium for them? Well, at least they learned their lesson – Hyman’s working out quite alright.
Verdict: fail. Oilers fans might not want to look at who was picked with the 2020 2nd rounder.
VAN-LAK: Tyler Toffoli for 2020 2nd, Tim Schaller, Tyler Madden (+cond. 2022 4th, condition not met)
If you want scoring and playoff experience, who better to look for than Tyler Toffoli? I can appreciate the idea: Vancouver had a young team and a decent prospect pool to boot – adding a more experienced option made sense. Sure, Madden was trending nicely in the NCAA, and a second rounder isn’t exactly nothing, but what could go wrong? Before the pandemic, he even went point per game with his new team!
… four points in seven playoff games, first-round exit, directly to UFA. Have I heard this story before?
Verdict: fail, but perhaps not as bad as the previous cases.
2021
VGK-CHI-SJS: Mattias Janmark, Nick DeSimone for 2021 2nd, 2022 3rd, 2022 5th
This three-way deal technically fills the criteria, even if the structure makes it a bit unclear. At this point, we all know how Vegas rolls at the deadline: see UFA, get UFA, give picks. What Vegas also does pretty admirably is keeping the rentals who play well, and that’s what they did with Janmark: after eight points in 16 games in a rather limited, role, they extended him for another year, netting them further 67 games of service for their pick investment (hilariously, no playoffs that time around).
Verdict: pass. Janmark isn’t some phenom on the ice, but they got what you could expect from a middle 6 forward, and extended him to get more the year after. Not great, but definitely not terrible either.
BOS-BUF: Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar for 2021 2nd, Anders Bjork
A textbook example of a textbook organisation schooling a terrible one in a trade. Buffalo invested in Hall with the clear intention of renting him at the TDL; however, giving him a NMC likely wasn’t the brightest idea of all time, as this made it all too hard for Adams to get a brilliant trade return for him. Boston took advantage: they didn’t get much out of him in the first 11 playoff games, but they did get two reasonably priced and successful seasons out of him afterwards, with short playoff runs to boot. 14 points in 16 games down the stretch isn’t a bad outcome either. While better suited for attracting 1st OA picks, I think this is our first clear success.
Verdict: pass. Three playoff runs for the price of one is a decent haul.
TOR-CBJ-SJS: Nick Foligno, Stefan Noesen for 202 1st, 2021 4th, 2022 4th
We’re discussing Toronto and the playoffs in the same sentence?
Verdict: fail. For all the crap the Leafs have gone through, this is among the worst individual mistakes.
TBL-CBJ-DET: David Savard, Brian Lashoff for 2021 1st, 2021 4th, 2022 3rd
A rare success story where a top rental ended up on the Cup-winning team. Playing a very limited third-pair role, you could very easily chalk this trade as a gross overpayment for a player who simply coasted to a win alongside the Hedmans and Points of the world, but… actually, that’s pretty much what it was. Brisebois hasn’t shied away from overpaying for literally whoever happens to be available – he has been wildly successful with non-rentals, so perhaps there’s something there after all. Savard left for the Habs right after the Cup win, and we can now see what kind of a stoppable force he is there. Still…
Verdict: pass. No matter how bad you overpay at the deadline, you’ll get a pass anyway for winning the whole thing. That’s how the league thinks.
NYI-NJD: Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac for 2021 1st, 2022 4th, AJ Greer, Mason Jobst
The Isles have been one of the better playoff teams in recent years, and they haven’t exactly been averse to adding rentals. A double whammy of Palmieri and Zajac wasn’t overly impactful in the grand scheme of things: Zajac was washed, and while Palmieri did shine against the Bruins in the second round, he handed in a total vanishing act against the Lightning in the ECF. Palmieri was extended afterwards, but his production has been lacklustre ever since.
Verdict: fail, by the thinnest of margins. Keeping your own rental after the run is obviously a bonus, but has Palmieri been worth keeping? That’s up for debate, and it will also be the determining factor for whether you like this deal or not. Zajac was as useless as it gets, which is a minus. The picks haven’t had time to amount to much yet, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
2022
NYR-WPG: Andrew Copp, 2023 6th for 2021st, 2022 2nd, 2023 5th, Morgan Barron
The Rangers solidified an already deep forward group with a Swiss army knife from Michigan, who was pretty obviously going to be rented away. After having a career year already in Winnipeg, Copp turned up the heat after the trade, scoring 18 in 16 down the stretch and putting up further 14 points in the playoffs. Pretty good for a middle six forward. Due to their playoff success, the price turned out to be quite hefty: two high picks and Barron isn’t a small payment, even though the Rangers had little use for Barron’s services.
Verdict: pass, but barely so. This is, ironically, quite close to what the Jets got from Paul Stastny in 2018: however, Stastny played a tad bit better and wasn’t as expensive to the Jets. However, I won’t discount the heavy lifting Copp did during the run, and therefore, the deal remains a pass. Perhaps it’s better that NYR didn’t keep Copp, after all.
STL-DET: Nick Leddy, Luke Witkowski for 2023 2nd, Jake Walman, Oskar Sundqvist
Verdict: fail, and the playoff results hardly matter here. A team who lets Pietrangelo and Dunn go for nothing shouldn’t be renting anyone to fill the gap just two seasons later. They probably shouldn’t be looking at Leddy at all nor extend him to a sizable deal afterwards, and to top it all off, they definitely shouldn’t cough up Walman in the trade too, who has been a revelation in Detroit. It goes without saying that a team engaging in this shit hasn’t been saved by Leddy, but the context makes the trade even worse.
TOR-SEA: Mark Giordano, Colin Blackwell for 2022 2nd, 2023 2nd, 2024 3rd
Toron… to… pla… yoff… run…
Verdict: fail. I see what the idea was, but I also see the outcome. But Leafs fans: worry not. You weren’t anywhere close to the worst team at this TDL.
FLA-PHI: Claude Giroux, German Rubtsov, Connor Bunnaman, 2024 5th for 2024 1st, 2023 3rd, Owen Tippett
Florida took a leaf out of Columbus’ 2019 book and went for all the rentals in one go. Obviously, that was a dreadful idea – but to Giroux’ credit, at least he held his end of the deal: make plays, put up points. In other words, he was an actually good player – making Florida’s forward group unbelievably stacked with talent. However, with the investment and losing him directly to UFA, can’t say this was a success.
Verdict: fail. As the saying goes: if something ain’t broke, spend all your draft capital fixing it.
FLA-MTL: Ben Chiarot for 2023 1st, 2022 4th, Ty Smilanic
Aside from Florida’s GM and a select few Montreal fans who were blinded by the 2021 finals run, everybody else knew what was going to happen. A sub-NHL level defenseman going up against the top Atlantic teams… it wasn’t quite meant to be.
Verdict: fail. Probably the worst deadline failure since 2015, where the Kings paid a similar amount of assets for Sekera and then missed the entire playoffs. But hey, at least Zito wasn’t stupid enough to give him a 19-million-dollar extension.
CGY-SEA: Calle Järnkrok for 2022 2nd, 2023 3rd, 2024 7th.
Again, we’re trading three picks for bottom-6 depth for some odd reason. Järnkrok, quite predictably, did little for the Flames during the 12 playoff games they managed that year, before leaving for free. Yay.
Verdict: fail. Significantly less boring than the Florida fiasco discussed above, but still ever-so-bad.
COL-ANA: Josh Manson for 2023 2nd, Drew Helleson
A pair of decent futures was given up for a top 4 defenseman like Manson, but I don’t think Avs fans are complaining at this point. Compared to Savard in 2021, Manson had a larger role in Colorado’s defense, even though his minutes dropped throughout the run. And with Manson receiving a hard-earned extension in July 2022, I reckon we have a pretty clear case of a…
Verdict: …pass.
2023
Finally, the madness of the 2023 deadline awaits us.
NYR-STL: Vladimir Tarasenko, Niko Mikkola for 2023 1st, 2024 4th, Samuel Blais, Hunter Skinner
This deadline was aptly described as an arms race between the top Eastern teams, and the Rangers definitely raced. This pair of pretty high-quality UFA rentals cost them two picks and a prospect, and got them… a first-round exit after seven games. Oh, and they lost both players as UFAs. Not an easy race, by the looks of it.
Verdict: fail. They got an impressive 31 games out of both players in the regular season, which salvages at least… who am I kidding, it doesn’t salvage a damn thing.
TOR-STL-MIN: Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, Josh Pillar for 2023 1st, 2023 3rd, 2024 2nd, 2025 4th , Adam Gaudette, Mikhail Abramov
Phew, that was a lot of assets. Oh, it’s Toronto again?
Verdict: fail. Their best TDL pickup thus far in this post, and he was undoubtedly a good fit, but Leafs fans don’t need to be told that a second-round exit isn’t acceptable, especially not for such a ridiculous price tag. Had they been able to keep him for another year, this could have been an easy pass, but alas, not to be.
BOS-WSH-MTL: Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Andrei Svetlakov for 2023 1st, 2024 3rd, 2025 2nd, 2023 5th
These three-way deals seem to be expensive as hell to pull off, and I think it’s justifiable to raise the bar of expectations accordingly. Orlov did offensive defenseman things as best as he could, but again, seven playoff games and straight to a top rival in the conference as UFA. That’s not ideal. As for Hathaway, not even the Bruins cared, seeing as he didn’t crack an average of 10 minutes a game in the postseason.
Verdict: fail. Fun fact: Patrice Bergeron was a -6 in three games after he returned to the playoffs. Is he the worst team player in NHL history after all?
VGK-STL: Ivan Barbashev for Zach Dean
Stretching the definition of a significant return again, but Dean was a recent first round pick, so let’s have it. Barbashev was a spectacular pick-up, netting a ton of points while fitting into the well-oiled Knight machine. Some of the best deadline acquisitions end up being the ol’ reliable, low-maintenance veterans, and Barbashev was no exception.
Verdict: pass. The perfect deadline pickup?
TBL-NSH: Tanner Jeannot for the 2023 NHL entry draft
Oh, and Cal Foote was also involved. An absolutely awful deal, that might just be based on him shooting at 19.4 % the year before. Just a hunch.
Verdict: fail. I’m eagerly waiting for what Brisebois has in store for us this year.
BOS-DET: Tyler Bertuzzi for 2024 1st, 2025 4th
See Orlov. It’s obviously promising to see that your rentals are productive, but you cannot pay these kinds of assets to immediately fall out in the first round.
Verdict: fail.
LAK-CBJ: Joonas Korpisalo, Vladislav Gavrikov for 2023 1st, 2024 3rd, Jonathan Quick
Our final trade was actually one of the more sensible rental deals of this collection. LA’s goaltending was a dysfunctional mess the whole season, and they managed to address the issue with a well-performing Korpisalo. Gavrikov, on the other hand, was simply a great addition to their D corps; he would have been that for anyone, and they even managed to extend him for another two years. The price they paid for the duo (and dumping Quick) was very reasonable, especially compared to teams coughing up multiple 1sts for their deadline guys. Even though their run was swiftly ended up McDavid and his entourage, they could have done far worse with their assets.
Verdict: pass, but barely so. Only time will tell whether Gavrikov gets to go on a deep run this year. Korpisalo definitely isn’t going to.
Total: 24 trades, 7 passes, 17 fails.
Still not a good outcome for the acquirers, but a slightly better ratio than the 3-12 that we had between 2015 and 2018.
What did we learn? Maybe don’t blow your entire future into Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev this March. It rarely works out, and unless you’re an elite team already, your chances aren’t great. Stick with more reasonable trades.
