MTPS: What the Hell Was That?? An NHL Trade Deadline Post-Mortem

At every trade deadline there are a few types of teams:

• Teams that did what they needed
• Teams that helped themselves but not as much as they needed
• Teams that acted as if the NHL is shutting down after this season
• Teams that hurt themselves today for a better tomorrow
• Teams that hurt themselves today and tomorrow
• Teams that leave your brain hurting because what they did made less sense than the plot of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

This deadline was absolutely bananas with a whole bunch of trades wowed us and others that left us (and most experts) speechless for their abject stupidity. 

The Big Winner: There Can Be Only One

Dallas Stars

The Stars took advantage of Carolina’s desperation to not get burned by another rental player like they were with Jake Guentzel and managed to acquire Mikko Rantanen for a good prospect and two first round picks a couple of years from now that will be low in the round. They then took advantage of the fact that their state doesn’t charge income tax to sign Rantanen (and Wyatt Johnston) to very team-friendly extensions. And this after adding Mikael Granlund earlier in the season. 

That’s a tidy bit of work. Jim Nill will have some tough sledding ahead with Matt Duchene and Jaime Benn, but that’s a problem for another day. In the meantime, the Stars have to be the odds on favorite to represent the West in the Cup Final. 

Winners…but…

*When I started drafting this up I had Colorado in here too and then Chris McFarland and Joe Sakic lost their f*cking minds*

The Flo-Rida Teams

You know how when you go to the supermarket and you’re buying cereal you can either buy Cheerios for $4.50 a box or the store brand version of Cheerios for $2.99? 

A large part of what has made these two franchises so successful has been that they don’t buy the Cheerios. Each of these teams have been lauded for the ability of their front offices to find undervalued players on other teams, bring them in for low round picks, get quality play out of them, and then dump them when they started to get too expensive for their roles. Yet, in the days leading up to this trade deadline, all three teams bought brand names at full price rather than looking for discounts.

Florida Panthers

Here’s how Florida built up their D group prior to last year’s Stanley Cup run.

• Brandon Montour - acquired for a 3rd round pick
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson - one-year deal after being released by Vancouver
• Dmitri Kulikov - one-year deal after being released by the Penguins
• Gustov Forsling - claimed off waivers from Carolina

It looked like Florida was going to do that again this year with the additions of Nate Schmid and Adam Boqvist, which is what makes their acquisition of Seth Jones so puzzling. Don’t get me wrong, Jones will make Florida better, but at a really high price that is out of character for the Panthers. I’m not only talking about the cost to acquire Jones (Spencer Knight and a 1st) but at $7M per year (after Chicago retains salary), Jones is a very expensive 2nd pair defender who has been a pretty big disappointment since getting his contract. Florida then hit a buzzer beater by acquiring Brad Marchand, who will go a long way to cementing the Panthers as the most dislikeable team in the NHL. Seriously, just trade for Tom Wilson and get it over with. 

Tampa Bay Lightning

Yes, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde make the Lightning better, and I don’t mean for this to sound like a knock on either player, but it feels like Julien Bris-Bois paid Peter Lugers prices for an Applebee’s steak. Bjorkstrand and Gourde are the kinds of nebulous, middle-six players that Tampa Bay would let OTHER teams dole out first round picks for while they went along finding guys like Nick Paul for Matthieu Joseph and a fourth rounder or Anthony Duclair for a third round pick.