NHL teams were busy this trade window with 19 trades alone on deadline day and over 60 in total.
With the NHL trade deadline now completed, it’s time to look at who we believe to be the winners and losers during this season’s trade window.
Making the right trades can be crucial for a team’s longevity to stick around longer and deeper into the playoffs, it could be the difference between winning and losing the Stanley Cup.
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Here are the updated odds for this year’s Stanley Cup:
NHL Trade Deadline Top 3 Winners
Boston Bruins (+425)
As if the Boston Bruins are not strong enough already sitting top of the Eastern Conference by 13 points, they boast having the best penalty-killing unit in the league and the lowest goals allowed per game this season as well as having the 8th-best powerplay and 2nd most amount of goals scored.
The Bruins made three trades this window, further strengthening their already impressively strong team. Brought in were two forwards to cover the 3rd and 4th lines – Garnet Hathaway (Washington Capitals) and Tyler Bertuzzi (Detroit Red Wings).
The real winner so far has been their defensive signing Dmitry Orlov. Although many criticized this trade in terms of, he might upset the balance in defense, he has done the opposite scoring 8 points in his first 4 starts which goes down as the joint third most points for an NHL franchise in their first four games.
It’s safe to say the Boston Bruins have been very much winners in this trade deadline, they just need to justify this impressive season with a Stanley Cup victory.
Toronto Maple Leafs (+950)
The Toronto Maple Leafs made some strong moves in this trade deadline acquiring former Stanley Cup winner and finals MVP center Ryan O’Reilly from the St Lois Blues.
The Leafs now boast of having three solid centers in O’Reilly, John Tavares, and Auston Matthews. They have also boosted their blue line bringing in Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson as well as top-four defenceman Jake McCabe.
Two bottom-six forwards have also been brought in to boost the Maple Leafs’ depth in Noel Acciari and Sam Lafferty.
The Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and have failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs since 2004, embarrassingly losing five game sevens in a row. Toronto went all in this trade deadline to get past the possible meeting with three-time Stanley Cup finalists (in a row) in round one of the playoffs which is like to be the Tampa Bay Lightning.
New York Rangers (+1600)
The NY Rangers are on paper winners this deadline acquiring not one but two top-six forwards and former Stanley Cup winners in Vladimir Tarasenko (St Louis Blues) and Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks).
With that said did they really need them? Their biggest issues as of late have been their bottom defensive lines and backup goaltender. Time will tell how the Rangers shape up but it’s worth noting both these blockbuster trades have seen their Stanley Cup odds drift down to (+1600) from (+1900) last month.
NHL Trade Deadline Top 3 Losers
Philadelphia Flyers (+500000)
To say it’s been a disaster of trade windows for Philadelphia is putting it mildly, the team is 3rd last in the Eastern Conference and has no hope of making the playoffs this season, and don’t look like they will next season either.
What they should have been doing was trading in their veterans for draft picks or young prospects, instead, they acted like everything was going swimmingly and now have both James van Riemsdyk and Justin Braun as unrestricted free agents this off-season.
Van Riemsdyk looked to be moving to Detroit just before the window closed but the Red Wings ultimately backed out. They made another disaster of a move by trading away Zack MacEwen and Patrick Brown for a late draft pick and Brendan Lemieux who is a pending free agent.
Vancouver Canucks (+999900)
Simply put the Vancouver Canucks lost this trade deadline because the front office doesn’t have a clue about what direction to take this franchise. They gave up captain Bo Horvat early in the trade market to the NY Islanders then looked to be rebuilding with some young prospects brought in but have since gone backward by giving up a first and second-round pick for a Filip Hronek who has just one year left on his contract and has a cap hit at 4.4 million.
They also failed to get rid of J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser who are said to be on the trade block. All in all this team has no sense of direction and will undoubtedly be struggling to make the playoffs yet again next season.
Arizona Coyotes (+999900)
All the talk of Jakob Chychrun leaving the Arizona Coyotes finally came to fruition. The Coyotes left Chychrun out of the line-up from February 10th and he was finally offloaded to the Ottawa Senators.
The trade itself was underwhelming for the Coyotes as they only received a conditional first and second-round pick in 2023 and 2024.
To put it mildly, the Coyotes now have 57.6% of their overall cap limited allocated to retirements, cap retention via trade, and contract dumps. Simply put it’s a disaster in Arizona.
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
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