Wild, Kraken among winners at NHL trade deadline

The Wild grabbed the biggest name on the board and the Kraken prepared for the future with successful trade deadlines in the NHL.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: My first winner, and the finest sequence of trade deadline day, belongs to Billy Guerin and the Minnesota Wild. Marc-André Fleury-- he was willing to only go to maybe a couple of places, but Minnesota was one of them. And the Wild used that leverage to provide only a modest return for a potential game changer in the Central Division bracket. If you're going to beat Colorado, you better come correct with goaltending, and it appears the Wild will be able to do just that.

Chicago was desperate for a first-round pick. That's what they wanted, in return for Flower, and they get it only by title because it is a conditional pick and they're calling it a first-round-- first-round conditional, but it's not. It's a second-round with the condition of becoming a first-round pick, maybe, if Minnesota gets to the third round.

And it's a perfect compromise for the Wild, because, if the Chicago Blackhawks get what they want-- again, that's the first-round pick, then Minnesota gets what it wants. They want two series victories. They want to beat the Colorado Avalanche in the second round. They want to go to the Western Conference Final, and maybe the Stanley Cup Final with Marc-André Fleury in net.

But not only did they get Fleury. They broke up their logjam in-goal with not just a salary dump, but a sage maneuver to get even better, moving Kaapo Kahkonen to the San Jose Sharks. For Jacob Middleton, they get not just a defenseman, but a coveted asset around the entire league.

You had great teams-- Tampa Bay checking in, Florida checking in. Everyone around the league, or at least the people that watch San Jose Sharks hockey, know that Jacob Middleton is worth the money, at $750,000 dollars. So not only did they get better in goaltender-- the goaltending position. They got better on defense as well.

They sent away a problem, a guy they deemed could not win for them in net, for a guy that's going to help this team even more this season.

So all told, a conditional second-- it's a second-round pick. And a netminder that they didn't believe in anymore, at least right now-- Guerin solidified things on both the back-end and in the crease. The Wild did tremendously well on trade deadline day.

Another winner is the Colorado Avalanche, who, again, we've talked about a couple of times here. But they're the best team in the league, and they had a tremendous deadline. They were not as aggressive as other great teams. And I think that paid off for them. They get the award for the best leverage used, even though Fleury was pretty impressive, as well, in Minnesota.

But being able to jump in front of the market and get Josh Manson, because Josh Manson wanted to be with the Colorado Avalanche. Just a perfect starting point for Joe Sakic here, the perfect add in the perfect situation, getting a guy who really rounds out the defense corps, will play with Sam Girard and bring that stabilizing element.

But not only did they get the perfect guy for the back-end; they got the perfect guy from a utility-- functional utility standpoint in the middle of their lineup in our Artturi Lehkonen of the Montréal Canadiens, or previously of the Montréal Canadiens.

And to get Lehkonen in-- and Manson-- they did not give up a first-rounder. They give up two prospects, one of which is pretty high up in the system. But, you know, if you're going to get rid of something-- I mean, you've got to pay to play.

So two prospects, one of which is very good. And two second-round picks, meaning they saved their first-round pick, which is something that Joe Sakic endeavored to do. So that's a pretty reasonable price to pay if you're an elite team that has built to this moment where you are all in, but you're all in without having to mortgage your future entirely, which is a tremendous thing, I think, for the Colorado Avalanche, who are best suited, still, to be the Stanley Cup favorites at this point, for sure. And they got two guys who can really help that along, and they didn't have to give up too much. So kudos to Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche.

On the flip side of that was the Montréal Canadians who are unequivocal winners as well. Now, it is easier to liquidate, right? If you're the selling team and you have things that people want, it's very easy to make yourself look good.

But not every deadline for a seller goes as well as it went for Ken Hughes, who is a rookie on the job, by the way. And a lot of people are impressed at what he did, because he set prices, and he held firm on those prices, and he got what he wanted in the end.

So to recap, what they sent away-- Ben Chiarot for a first-round pick to the Florida Panthers, and a little extra as well-- Brett Kulak to the Edmonton Oilers for second-round pick. Tyler Toffoli-- those two before, the two defensemen-- they both had term-- or didn't have term, so unrestricted free agents, out the door. You're getting what you get for them, bonus.

Tyler Toffoli, who did have a term-- he goes for another first-round pick. And then Lehkonen, as I mentioned, goes to Colorado for the second. And Justin Barron was the prospect that mentioned. He is very-- I think he was a former late-round first-rounder, so something that Montréal can certainly slide into their prospect shelf and feel very, very good about it.

What they took back-- I've kind of laid out here, but two first-rounders-- just to put it all into a package here-- two first-rounders, two second-rounders, and selections in the fourth and fifth round, plus three prospects, including Justin Barron, Emil Heineman, and Ty Smilanic. Lots, right?

So it's impressive as a single haul, when you just lay it out like that, but even better, honestly, when you break it down into its parts, where you see what they got for each individual. I mean, Ken Hughes has certainly passed the smell test in his first run on a trade deadline.

Let's go to the Florida Panthers. Got to call them winners as well. You have to include them. They got the best D men and the best forward in the entire rental market, in the eyes of some, in Claude Giroux and the aforementioned Ben Girard. They did pay premiums for both, most certainly, but this was a power move from this franchise. This was the move you make when you have the best team in the history of the franchise and you have to go through, maybe, the best team of the entire salary cap era in order to reach your goal to get through the second round to go to the Eastern Conference, the Stanley Cup Final.

You've got to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, so you've got to come guns-a-blazing, and you've got to make sure that the best team you've ever iced is good enough. You don't take chances with that sort of thing. And Billy Zito went after it this trade deadline.

Certainly a risk, though. Because of these moves, two first-round picks spent, they will not have a first-round pick for three years. 2025 is their next scheduled selection in the first round. I don't even think they're eligible to trade that pick yet. If they could, they might have.

But think about things-- how things have changed here for the Panthers. And this was, like, a dark-- like, a black hole in the NHL for so long. Claude Giroux-- the biggest name traded at the deadline, without question, the guy. I guess Marc-André Fleury's up there as well.

But the guy right now-- he wanted to go there. He chose Florida as the destination. The number one free agent on the board chose Florida.

And, of course, in addition to that, they're one of the few teams that can realistically win the cup, or believe in their hearts that they can win the cup this season. Like, this is not a scenario in which the Florida Panthers have found themselves in historically here. So yeah, reason to go after it, 100%.

In the same vein as the Montréal Canadiens, we have the Seattle Kraken-- maybe their finest hour as the franchise. They've not been along for-- or around for very long, obviously, but they actually had probably their best day since they started things in the Pacific Northwest.

Now, they went through the expansion draft. Unable to both build a good team right away, but also unable to build a solid futures portfolio through the expansion draft, right? They tried to be-- it was kind of a half-measured approach. Like, they were stuck in the middle of trying to build for the future and be really good, or be, at least, decent right out of the chute. They picked some good players, and it just hasn't worked. And they kind of had some futures, but they kind of wasted some picks as well.

But in dealing six players, making five deals, they have had that moment where they've set up for the future. Now, in these past few hours here, they sent six players out, one of which was their captain, Mark Giordano. Colin Blackwell went with him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marcus Johansson went back to the Capitals. Mason Appleton went back to the Jets. Jeremy Lauzon was sent to Nashville. And Calle Jarnkrok was sent to the Calgary Flames.

Coming back in return, four seconds, two thirds, and several more draft picks in the later rounds. They now have nine picks in the first four rounds, in the next two drafts, so 18 picks in the top four over the next two drafts. That is the foundation in which this team will be properly built-- that is, if we trust Ron Francis to be better in amateur drafts than he was in expansion drafts last winter, for a couple honorable mentions. The Calgary Flames also have to be there.

It's been a touch reckless, I think, but also very, very purposeful, right? And it really has been purposeful from Treliving since the end of last season. Like, they've just went out there and filled gaps at an efficient and uncompromising level. In the last few weeks alone, they've plugged holes this season-- two in the middle six, one on the fourth line, and they paid premium-- premiums for all of those.

But you pay premiums to reward your team for an outstanding season, to reward your organization for this revamped and refocused situation under Darryl Sutter, and why wouldn't you reward them? They're playing the class of the Pacific Division. They're playing extremely well.

And they're looking around at the other teams in the Western Conference, thinking, well, we're better than Vegas. We're better than Edmonton. We're better than LA. We should get to the Western Conference Final. And if we play Colorado-- you know, we've seen them a couple of times, when we played them very competitively.

So if you're Calgary and you're Brad Treliving-- like, he's been at it for a while now. He's been at it for a while. And he has expertly filled these holes. Again, it cost a lot, but that's what you do when you have a chance to win.

This has been, like, the take-home message of this entire trade deadline, is that teams that have a realistic shot have went after it, and only one of them can have success in the end, or the success that they expect to have in the end, but that shouldn't deter teams in the future. Go after it if you have a chance.

Calgary-- as good of an example as any, of this uncomfortable, uncompromising approach toward being the best team they can possibly be. Pretty impressive what Treliving has managed to do this season.

As I mentioned, honorable mentions. Pittsburgh Penguins-- I said before, they have one move. They have one bullet to fire. And it's probably for a scoring winger.

They went out and got that scoring winger, and Rickard Rakell. He should fit, probably, in the second run-- second line with Evgeni Malkin, give them a little boost. It's going to be fun to watch Pittsburgh take one more run at it.

New York Rangers-- also a pretty positive day. It seems like they're really cornering the market on those guys who are kind of lower in the lineup and add some grit and toughness and play the, quote, unquote, "right way."

But to sit back and to get Andrew Copp and Tyler Motte for very little at the end, when it seems like other teams had already used what they could, and take advantage of that scenario-- the Rangers also added Frank Vatrano for basically nothing. Like, that's a full third line for very little. So kudos to Chris Drury for getting that done.

Anaheim Ducks as well. They probably should be elevated beyond honorable mentions, because I've mentioned, like, Seattle and Montréal teams that did really well selling. Ducks actually did incredibly well selling as well. They moved out a lot of bodies.

They weren't sort of-- they didn't get caught up in the success that they had early in the season. They knew what they had to do this deadline. They knew they had to send some bodies out. They know they have to build from behind-- Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, John Gibson. They made the right decisions in turning over the roster. It probably just means that, you know, the steps we thought they were taking-- you know, maybe it's one more step back before they can take multiple steps forward.

Among players, there are winners as well. Nick Paul goes from Ottawa to Tampa Bay. Enough said. Anton Forsberg gets a three-year deal that will pay him almost $3 million annually for the next three years in Ottawa. That's awesome because this guy was literally on waivers, like, every other day last season, and now he's going to make at least $9 million, or close to, over the next three seasons. That's great for him.

Andrew Cogliano going to the Colorado Avalanche. He could be their 12th and 13th forward. I mean, that's a dream for him. And Artturi Lehkonen-- like, this guy is a restricted free agent. At the end of the season, he's going to Colorado as well. What better way to build up your leverage in negotiations by joining that moving freight train and having a huge impact, like he did in last year's postseason with the Montréal Canadiens.

So opportunities for those four players. Well, I guess Anton Forsberg seized his opportunities. But for Paul Cogliano and Lehkonen-- what a day for them.