Winners:
Dallas Stars
You wanna talk about having a hell of a day at the deadline, look no further than what happened in Dallas. They pulled off a double whammy. First, they acquired Mikko Rantanen in a sign and trade. Got him for picks from Carolina and then locked him up to an eight year contract extension worth $96 million. It fills a big need in the Dallas offense and keeps him in Texas for a long time afterwards. Sure it cost Logan Stankoven, but there's bigger upside with Rantanen. This coming after a trade made early in February to add Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci from the Sharks. Oh and they were also able to lock up Wyatt Johnson on a five year extension as well. All in all, a pretty good day in Dallas coming out of the deadline.
Florida Panthers
This was not only a last minute trade, but the biggest holy bleep trade of deadline day. The Panthers have made a habit of picking up other teams captains over the last couple of years at the deadline. First, Claude Giroux from the Flyers two years ago. Last year, Kyle Okpos from the Sabres. This year, a conditional draft pick was sent to the Boston Bruins for Brad Marchand. They also managed to pick up Seth Jones in an earlier deal as well. By adding those two guys, it makes the odds a lot better for the Panthers to try and look like a threat to go back to back again.
Lot to take in here in Tampa. A couple seasons ago, the Bolts gave up a lot of draft picks for Tanner Jeannot, a deal in which bit them right in the rear end. Now , the Lightning do something similar here, but this could pay off a lot better than that one did. The Bolts sent draft picks to Seattle (Detroit did as well), in order to land Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand. Seattle is keeping half of Gourde salary, while Detroit has 25% of it. Its adding major depth to a talented lightning team, one of those guys who already knows what its like to win here in Gourde. This is a huge move for Tampa.
Losers:
Carolina Hurricanes
A small part of me almost feels a little bad for the Hurricanes in this case. They had gone out of their way to try and get better a month ago. They sent quite a bit over to Colorado in order to get Rantanen. The got back four picks and Logan Stankhoven for Rantanen. Not quite the return they were hoping for and making this deal to land Mikko in the first place didn't even really pan out. Carolina is trying to get better and come over the hump in a sense and get to the third round or better. Just feels like all they did to get Rantanen and then trade him off feels like they come up short. Only time will really tell in that regards.
Winnipeg Jets
I can't totally take away from what the Jets did here. They did add solid pieces to their lineup. You made a couple of good moves adding Tanev and Schenn, but the lack of center depth could be a bit of a problem come playoff time. As of me writing this, Winnipeg still has an eight point lead for the division title over Dallas. But with the moves that both Dallas and even Colorado (adding a guy like Brock Nelson) makes me feel that the Jets had kind of a letdown in a sense with what they did at the deadline to even try and improve, or at least hold off the onrush that's about to happen.
Hockey in Western NY hasn't been fun the last couple of seasons, at least not come springtime. Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs since 2011, a streak that looks like it won't end this season. To make matters worse, in a four player trade with Ottawa, Buffalo gave up on Dylan Cozens for Josh Norris. A deal which makes very little sense. Norris has potential to possibly be a bigtime impact player. But for what he's worth he cannot for the life of him stay healthy and on the ice. The guy might be good but he can't seem to get out of his own way with injuries (not really his fault). Buffalo doesn't seem like they have been able to get the right mix of guys on the team at the right time to get anywhere close to finally breaking that glass celing and get into the post season.
No comments:
Post a Comment