NHL Trade Deadline Winners & Losers

Its one of the days on the calendar that all hockey fans look forward to. In fact, along with the start of free agency over the summer, trade deadline day is the most fun day of the hockey year that has nothing to do with the action on the ice. Who's going to get moved and where? What's the price tag for players? Is somebody going to get a contract extension? All those questions are ussally answered by deadline day. Now, the trade deadline has come and gone in the NHL. Since we've had a few days to try and digest everything that's gone down, there was quite a bit of movement. Here's a look at some of the winners and losers from deadline day.

Winners:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Facts are that since Christmas, there's been no hotter team in the game of hockey then the Tampa Bay Lightning. They've lost only four games since the holiday's and have had two winning streaks of ten or more games (before having that 2nd one snapped by the Leafs). At the deadline, the Bolts went out and made moves to get even better. Rookie GM Julien BriseBois went out and picked up underrated Blake Coleman from the Devils. he then went out and picked up former Buffalo defenseman Zach Bogosian, at a bargain. And to round the day out, they went out and picked up defensive forward Barclay Goodrow. These moves went out and made a good team even deeper. Now with the injury bug looking like its starting to strike the Boiltsw, adding these players looms even larger going down the home stretch.

Boston Bruins
Everybody knows good and well that the Bruins are one of the best all around teams in the game this year, poised to make another run at the title. The Bruins didn't have to do much of anything at the deadline, they could have stayed pat and been just fine. Instead, they went out and traded David Backes to the Ducks for 24 year old winger Ondrej Kase. Backes hasn't done anywhere near what you got out of him when he was in St. Louis, so unloading him was a huge relief for the B's. Plus, you got a solid return in Kase. He's got plenty of potential to be a good all around scorer in this league. Kase has one piece of baggage attached, if you even want to call it that. He's been hit with injuries during his career. When healthy, he's going to have a big impact in Beantown

Carolina Hurricanes
At the time of this writing, the Hurricanes sit just two points back of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. With the moves they made at the deadline, it could be of huge help in getting them the push they need at the final playoff spot. Carolina has to deal with Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce being down with injuries. So to help deal with that, the team goes out and brings in Sami Vatanen and Brady Skjei. Everybody know that Vatanen is coming in as a rental, but the addition of Skjei is big because he's not only got youth on his side (and is very good), but he's also locked up to a long term deal. Oh yeah, they also gave their offense a big boost by picking up Vincent Trocheck from the Panthers. He;'s got great offensive skills and is also signed to a long term deal, so he'll be here in Carolina a while. Carolina is looking for a repeat of the success they had in last year's playoffs and this will help get them in the right direction.

Losers:
Chicago Blackhawks
Its no secret here that the Hawks are in a bit of a rebuild. lets face it, they aren't going to contend this season and were looking to sell at the deadline. You'd like to think that they would be able to get some kind of decent return for some of the pieces they were selling off. Instead, the opposite happened. All the Hawks managed to grab was a second-round pick, a third-round pick, a backup goalie and a college defenseman who isn't ranked high on a lot of people's charts. And the two guys that they got rid of were pretty popular in the hawks room. Erik Gustafsson should have been traded this past summer, when his value was much higher. Meanwhile, Robin Lehner, a reigning Vezina finalist, kept Chicago in many games earlier this season when everything else was falling apart. Since the return on Lehner was so low, it raises the question of why he was even traded at all.

Joe Thornton's Cup Chances
Had he wanted out, nobody would have blamed him. Jumbo Joe has had a hell of a career in this league, one of the all time greats of this generation of hockey players. If Thorton had asked to be delt to a winner, General Manager Doug Wilson would have oblidged. Never happened. And when you see guys like Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrick Marleau getting moved to contending teams, it leaves one to wonder why in the hell would Thornton stay put on a floundering team in San Jose to get a shot a cup?

Local Teams
New York Rangers
Sure, they traded Brady Skjei to Carolina, but that's not even the biggest move coming from the deadline that the Rangers made. Biggest move was signing Chris Kreider to a seven year contract extension worth $6.5 million a year. Its a little down from the number Kreider wanted, which was $7 miullion a year. The most important thing is, Kreider is staying on Broadway, a place he said he really wanted to be.He's been considered a heart and soul guy for this team and a building block that the rangers want to be able to build around.

Grade: B+

New Jersey Devils
Lot of moves made by the Devils, who are going full blown rebuild and basically blowing the team up. It started with trading Taylor Hall to the Coyotes back in December. Then at the deadline they kept going. Andy Greene to the Islanders. Blake Coleman to the Lightning. Wayne Simmonds to the Sabres. Louis Domingue to the Canucks. Sami Vatanen to the Hurricanes. In rteturns were a lot of prospects and draft picks.. This is what happens when an experiement fails. Whoever comes in as the next GM for this team has a lot of work to do to get the Devils back on the right track. But he does have some good pieces to work with in the draft picks

Grade: B

New York Islanders
Two moves by the Isles at the deadline. They sent a 2021 second-round pick and defenseman David Quenneville to the Devils for Andy Greene. Then they added offensive help by sending three conditional 2020 draft picks to Ottawa for Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was proptly signed to a six year contract extension. Greene has been a good signing. He's stepped right in and been an impact player on a team that's had their blueline depleted by injuries as of late. Pageau has been an interesting move. On the one hand I do like it because he brings 24 goals down from Ottawa, and scored in his first game against the Rangers the day after the trasde. He can provide an offensive spark to this team, if he is able to bring that same game and jump he had in Ottawa. The picks may have been a little steep, but if he's anything close to what we've seen in Ottawa, then it was worth it.

Grade: B+