The biggest winner at he trading deadline was the Rangers. They acquired the best player on the board, Chris Kreider, for nothing, not a prospect nor picks, and not even much cap room after they jettisoned the disappointing Brady Skjei and got a No. 1. Even for a 26-year-old defenseman theoretically entering his prime, that was amazing.

It’s hard to win trade deadline day with an actual trade. Even when the initial reviews are laudatory, as they were a year ago for the Jets picking up Kevin Hayes and the Predators acquiring Wayne Simmonds,, Mikael Granlund and Brian Boyle, all those players earned neither team even a round.

In the short run, under-the-radar moves can often turn out to be the best. The Flyers, needing soon to pay Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers, passed on bringing back Jeff Carter and picked up two useful bottom-six guys in Derek Grant and Nate Thompson for practically nothing so that Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost can play in peace in Lehigh Valley, which right now is where they belong.

The Penguins have a 70-year-old general manager trying to keep the window open for as long as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are still themselves, why to Jim Rutherford a first-rounder and a top prospect was worth Jason Zucker. As for the long-term well-being of the franchise, well, we’ll see, because the entire history of the team has been boom or bust and the busts yielded Mario Lemieux, Crosby and Malkin. So in the long run who is to say that even every forgettable or regrettable move Pittsburgh made in the post Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr era didn’t pay off?

The Rangers appeared to be selling their soul, going four years without a No. 1 as the cost of a fine run in the early part of the last decade. But they have recovered splendidly and relatively quickly, sneaking back into the playoff race and ready to contend again a year from now. Point is, there are plenty of acquirable picks out there with which to restock, provided you have the patience, plus the owner, to allow you to do so.

Philadelphia has gone the exceedingly patient route to produce a roster filled with players on the upside, not that, tragically, Ron Hextall is around to get credit for it. There is pressure to get good today, if not sooner, so similar to Pittsburgh’s Jim Rutherford, 78-year old Islanders’ GM Lou Lamoriello struck Monday while the iron was hot, overpaying for Jean-Gabriel Pageau, a nice third-line player whom Ottawa, which should know best, didn’t consider a building block.

At least the Islanders, unlike the Jets with Hayes and the Blue Jackets with Matt Duchene a year ago, won’t wind up with nothing. But whether a Francophone who has spent his entire life in Ottawa enjoys the commute between Uniondale and Brooklyn we shall see. That said, minus Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas, Lamoriello had to be concerned with sending the right message to players in danger of sliding out of a playoff spot.

So did Dale Tallon about a leaky defense, so he sacrificed a top-six forward in Vinny Trocheck on behalf of a team, acquisition of a world-class goalie notwithstanding, on the backslide. Judging from attendance, the fans in South Florida don’t believe the Panthers are getting anywhere, judgment from owner Vinny Viola perhaps pending,

Thus some late February you gotta do what you gotta do, but keep in mind the reigning champs, whose historic roll started a year ago in January, didn’t require any deadline juice in late February to get over the top. So a Cup can be accomplished without that galvanizing deadline trade. In fact, the history of it shows that for true contenders, the little moves mean the most.

Nobody has a better record for this than Rutherford. With Kris Letang down for the count in 2016, the Penguins probably would have been too thin on defense to survive four rounds without Ron Hainsey. Ditto Trevor Daley, who played on back to-back winners. Carl Hagelin added speed and shot straight enough for one of the few times in his career to chip in a significant 16 points to the Pens’ 2016 run.

Michael Kempny plugged a hole for the 2018 Caps. Tomas Kaberle had enough left to help the Bruins in 2011. But for a big scoring impact from a deadline acquisition, you have to go back to Mark Recchi’s 16 points, including seven goals, for the 2006 Hurricanes.

Bob Clarke made significant pickups of Vinny Prospal in 2008 and Alexei Zhamnov and Vladimir Malakhov in 2004 that fueled conference final runs, but ultimately the Flyers didn’t win. For the record, neither did the Avalanche in 2000 when they added Ray Bourque, although Colorado got over the top the next year with him, so obviously that was a high-impact deal for almost nothing the Avalanche ever missed. For a yield, that still was not anything close to the all-timer—Butch Goring to the Islanders for Dave Lewis and Billy Harris–that loaded Bill Torrey’s stalled semifinal losers for four straight Stanley Cups, Goring contributing to the first three.

That was 40 years ago, so we’re not holding our breath for the Jets that Dylan DeMelo will be so remembered. There is a longer list of guys feeling more displaced and disrupted than re-energized by becoming a rental; one being Hayes, who subsequently has been terrific for the Flyers, another being Brian Leetch in Toronto.

We can only remember one trade prospect in a mid-season deal–Jarome Iginla–going on become a superstar and few late first round picks– Richard Rakell with a Toronto choice, ciphered through Boston as an example–who went on to became a better-than average player. Look hard enough and you can find more examples but our point is they are not common enough to make a contender think twice about dealing an end-of-first round pick if it believes itself to be strong enough to make a run.

When your opponents for a playoff spot, or a projected conference final, are adding, you do too, that’s just what you do. Once every few years the depth player makes the difference and once very 40 it sets up a dynasty.

Otherwise, the trade deadline exists to dump final months of contracts, and to get us all through February still paying attention and make dumb predictions. So if your team didn’t do much Monday in comparison with others, all hardly is lost. The best deals can be the ones you didn’t make, Chris Kreider having an excellent chance to be one of those.

Join the Discussion: » 1 Comments » Post New Comment

» The Penguins Suck it Up

» More Than Ever, the Winner Will Earn It

» We Have a Right to Know

» It's a Good Plan, but Only for This Time

» Taking a Shot Before There's a Shot