Western Conference arms race intensifies on NHL Trade Deadline day

Like most of us handling basically anything in our day-to-day lives, NHL GMs seemed to wait until the very last minute to get things going on trade deadline day.

Several major trades were filed to the league offices within a half hour of the 3pm EST cutoff, with the majority of the day’s dealings being finalized in the hours following the deadline. It was a group of Western Conference heavyweights stealing the show as the arms race between the Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators and Vegas Golden Knights heated up just hours after the San Jose Sharks added some depth to their already-potent offensive core.

It took a while and came right down to the wire, but the biggest fish available was indeed moved with Vegas winning the Mark Stone sweepstakes, giving the Golden Knights arguably the best top-six forward group in the west.

VGK added an absolute stud to their lineup, and Stone turns out to be more than a rental, too. The team inked the 26-year-old to an eight-year deal worth $9.5-million annually immediately after the acquisition.

As painful as it was for the Senators fanbase to see another homegrown superstar with roots in the city traded in the midst of his prime, the return Pierre Dorion got for Stone has to soften the blow at least a little. Highly-touted defence prospect Erik Brannstrom, to almost everyone’s surprise, was shipped to the Sens as part of the package, making this as close to a win-win trade as you’ll find.

After Stone was taken off the board, a rival contender in the west scooped up the second-best right-handed power forward on the market.

Plucking Simmonds out of Philly wasn’t the only big change the Preds made up front, as they also secured the skillset of Mikael Granlund in a one-for-one swap with the Wild for pending RFA Kevin Fiala. The Preds had the cap space to get a little older and a little more expensive and have turned a shallow looking forward group into a much more serviceable one with Monday’s acquisitions.

They are, after all, trying to keep pace with Winnipeg at the top of the Central division as the two powerhouses look destined to once again meet in the second round of the playoffs. The Jets added a big-bodied skilled forward of their own as they grabbed Kevin Hayes from the Rangers without having to part with any impactful assets from their roster.

With the San Jose Sharks adding Gustav Nyquist to their forward group as well, the conference semis and finals in the West should be a bloodbath.

In the East, it was the Columbus Blue Jackets making several surprising all-in moves after it was presumed they would be sellers at the deadline rather than buyers. Instead of the Jackets moving pending UFA’s Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin as most expected all season long, the squad instead went full buy-mode in acquiring Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel from the Senators before dealing for Rangers blueliner Adam McQuaid on Monday.

You can check out the rest of the acquisitions from a busy NHL Trade Deadline Day here.

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