Trade Deadline Recap

Finally, the day has come where we get to breakdown and analyze all the trades that took place on the NHL trade deadline day.  As usual it was a slow morning, but around 1 o'clock with less than 2 hours to go things really started to pick up and bodies started to move.  And after the 3 PM deadline the trades kept rolling in as they get announced in sent into the NHL offices at the last minute.   Now obviously I can't talk about every single trade especially in this manner so I've grouped up couple of the major ones and will kind of go from least important to most important as we break these down. 

Let's start with the Boston Bruins shall we.  Boston is one of those teams in the Atlantic that just won't die and I don't understand it completely.  They have always had some solid pieces but they’re aging and most of their youth seems to be average at best (clearly this does not apply to Pastrnak or McAvoy).  But they’re still battling for a top spot in their division, so they went and made a nice depth move here.  Johansson is a player that can play in any forward role and usually is a mid-40’s point producer through the regular season, so he can be dependable as a depth scorer. He has proven capable at scoring in the playoffs as well putting up 30pts in his career. 

Currently it looks like he will be playing on the second line as a winger, but he has the capability of playing at center.  Johansson’s diversity is likely a big reason the Bruins went out and picked him up.  Their no. 2 center, David Krejci, has a long history of being injured. Adding Marcus is a great insurance move here just incase something happens.  All in all, they did not pay much to bring him in either, a 2^nd seems to be the going rate for a lot of players and the 4^th rounder is basically a throw in.

Moving on from Boston we head all the way out west to San Jose.  The Sharks made a nice little addition by bringing in Gustav Nyquist. The Goose was a hard one to move for Detroit as he had a full No-Trade Clause in his contract, so he basically got to pick and choose where he went if anywhere at all.  I am of the belief that a post-game chat between some fellow Swedes the evening before the deadline is what led to Nyquist going to San Jose.

So, what does he bring to the Sharks?  They’re a team that has been rolling all season long.  They’re 2^nd in GF/G and their Powerplay is at 25.3%, good for 4^th in the league.  Adding Nyquist here can only help these numbers get better, he is also having a career best season as well when it comes to scoring.  He is playing on the 3^rd line which is being centered by future hall of famer, Jumbo Joe Thornton, and on the other wing is Kevin LaBanc who is a grittier player down low and a bit more of a shoot 1^st type.

Personally, he is not the player I would have targeted if I was the Sharks, but that’s not to say he won’t produce there.  They’re getting a player who has speed, skill, and can pass with the best of them.  But they’re missing that true grit that is needed for a deep playoff run which I feel Nyquist lacks.  But playing on the 3^rd line he should be able to take advantage of some mismatches.  They didn’t pay an outlandish price either, like I said, a 2^nd rounder seems to be the going rate this year.

Back in the great American Midwest, the Columbus Blue Jackets were not done making moves.  After going all in and selling most of the farm they came back towards the end of the day and brought in Adam McQuaid to solidify their defense. He fits right into this team based on his size, but more importantly he will bring playoff experience to a younger core of players.

McQuaid is a hard nosed and mean defenseman known for his play in front of the net.  His best years are likely behind him as he is 32 years old now, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play either.  He missed a lot of time to injury this season which may be a blessing in disguise as he will have played less games heading into the playoffs therefore making him a bit more well rested.  He should also be more ready and able to dish out punishment to the opposing forwards in front of the net.

From the Blue Jackets we take a short trip to the South West and visit the contending Nashville Predators, who made two key moves at the deadline.  First, they picked-up Mikael Granlund from the Wild in one of the rare, straight up, true hockey trades.  Then they looked to the East and brought in Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers right near the buzzer as the deadline was fast approaching. 

Granlund is a high-end skill player who can do just about everything.  He is an elite passer with a great shot, did I mention he has some great puck control and can deke with some of the best.  He plays in all situations as well, killing penalties and most important for the Preds, he produces on the PP.  As a team Nashville has the 2^nd worst PP in the entire league with a 12.5% success rate.  If Granlund can help them improve that over the short term and into the playoffs, then this trade will be viewed as a win for Nashville.

Speaking of helping the powerplay, who better to get than Wayne Simmonds.  Simmonds has solidified his career by being one of the best net front players in the entire league.  In 8 years with the Flyers, Simmonds scored 203 goals, 91 of those goals were on the PP!!!  If adding Simmonds to your powerplay can’t fix it, then nothing will.  And if they don’t get this one aspect of their game figured out, they will be out of the playoffs before they realize what happened.

Now we can’t talk trades without talking about the biggest “prize” of the day and that would be Mark Stone heading out to Vegas just minutes before the 3 pm deadline hit. With all the talk about Ottawa demanding multiple picks and players for Stone, it seems Vegas got him at a nice percent off, like old produce from a grocery store.  But that is not to say that Stone is getting old and rotten at all, just the Senators trying to salvage anything they can.

By adding Stone, the Golden Knights become a deeper and deeper team offensively.  And though they’re underperforming this season compared to how last season went, they’re still racking up wins and the whole team is scoring by committee.  But once again this is considered one of the elite teams in the league, with a horrendous PP.  The have the 22^nd ranked PP in the league this year, and Stone, who is a proven scorer, should help them climb the rankings and have a much more respectable PP heading into the playoffs.

While the price that Vegas paid wasn’t as high as what was originally expected, they did give up one elite (and I mean ELITE) prospect in Erik Brannstrom.  Brannstrom is one of the best up and coming Swedish defenseman in all of hockey. He will step right into the NHL next season in a 2^nd pairing role for the Sens with Chabot likely on the 1^st pairing.  There is no better place to start for Ottawa’s rebuild than on defense, lets just hope they don’t squander what could be an amazing career. 

And lastly the team that seemed to do the most work on Deadline Day, the Winnipeg Jets.  They made a plethora of moves compared to most other teams.  One major trade, and a few smaller ones which will likely pay the biggest dividends in the long haul. 

Starting on the back end the Jets went out and added some depth.  They have had a few players banged up here and there, but they also lost Josh Morrisey for about a month now leading into the playoffs making these depth moves even more important.  The addition of Nathan Beaulieu is the most important player added here. He is a smooth skater who can make a good 1^st pass. He is also still young and developing his game.  Things just didn’t work in Buffalo for him, perhaps the Jets will give him a fresh start and chance to play some meaningful minutes, but he’ll have to perform well if he wants to stay in the lineup.

At forward the Jets brought in a depth center in Matt Hendricks.  Hendricks isn’t a guy who is going to score and put up points for any team.  But what he will do is win you important face offs late in games in the defensive zone.  He will clear the puck out across your blue line.  He will battle hard in the corners against the opposition’s best players.  And he’ll block shots for you without hesitation.  He is one of the glue guys on a team that bonds them and motivates everyone to work that much harder by doing the little things that add up to victory. 

And the big splash of the day that was made early by the Jets was the addition of the giant forward Kevin Hayes.  Hayes was likely the most expensive player acquired all day costing a 1^st round pick and a young NHL player in Brendan Lemieux.  

Hayes has slid right into the No.2 center role for the Jets giving them some much needed depth at the position.  He also makes them even bigger than they already were as he is their 6^th player who is over 6’5” in height.  Not to mention he can skate like a guy who is only 5’10” and he drives the net like a true power forward should.  He can play on the power play as well as the penalty kill, which the Jets really need some help with.  He will be a key addition and should fit in nicely with how the Jets play and make a large impact in this year’s playoffs. 

Now like I said in the open I can’t talk about every player and every trade in this manner, my hands would fall off and your eyes would rot out, and nobody wants that.  But these are the biggest names moved and most competitive teams, who all just got that much better.  If you notice, most teams that made moves to improve right now were the ones out west.  It is no surprise as the Western standings are so tight that every team is looking for any and every edge they can find.  How these moves pan out will be seen in the next two months as teams shuffle for their spots in the playoffs and look to play for a chance to win the ultimate prize, The Stanley Cup.

One Month In - The Central

Now we take a look at arguably the toughest division in the league, the Central.  This is a division that is home to some absolute power house teams and has nothing but contenders when the season starts up.  But with all these high expectations, inevitably many fan bases end their season in disappointment. So lets take a look now and see who's fan bases should be happy and who's are on the brink of tears.

Central Division Standings as of  10 A.M. on 11/4/2018

Well surprise, surprise.  The Nashville Predators are 1st in the division and beginning to pull themselves away from the pack just a bit.  Fresh off a shut out against Boston and new contract on his birthday, Pekka Rinne has been a rock in goal for them the last 3 years.  And with a viable back up, who could be a starter on any other team, Juuse Saros gives the Preds a 1-2 in goal that no other team can compete with.  They also have one of the best lines in the league right now, with the best nickname as well.  The JOFA line composed of Johansen, Forsberg, and Arvidsson has been nothing but spectacular. They lead the way in points on the team, in that order as well, and are followed by Turris who is almost a forgotten player but still has 11pts through 14 games.  After the 4 forwards though their big-4 on defense are all contributing on offense as well, led by Subban with 10pts.  They're not a perfect team by any means though.  Their PP and PK are abysmal at best. They're tied for last place in PP percentage in the entire league, and the PK is last in the division.  If they expect to make a deep run in the playoffs and be a true contender this must change.

The Minnesota Wild are holding down the 2nd place spot in the division, which shouldn't be a surprise, but still is to me. The Wild are like Boston to me.  I see good players and a competitive team, but I can never really figure out how they're always as good as they are because they just shouldn't be, usually.  Starting from the back end,  Dubnyk seems to have regained his form after a bit of a rougher season last year posting a 2.07 GAA and a .937 SV% so far this year.  Those are elite numbers, Stalock on the other hand has not been nearly as sharp.  On defense they're led but Suter and Dumba with 12 and 7 pts respectively but Dumba is 2nd on the team in hits with 30.  Up front Grandlund, Parise, and Staal (who must've found the fountain of youth) are all just trucking along and pulling the rest of the team with them as they are the scoring leaders, yet their is balanced scoring up and down the line up.  Their most important stat line though is their PK, which is 85.2%, good for 5th in the league and 1st in the division.  If they can improve the below average PP then they could be a real dark horse favorite to win the Central. 

In 3rd place, the last promised playoff spot, we have the Winnipeg Jets.  To say that the Jets being in 3rd place is a shocker is fair, but on the other side of the coin they are tired with the Wild in pts.  Though they have extra game played at this point, therefore the nod goes to the Wild for 2nd.  Though they are being plagued a bit by some "slow starts".  Laine only has 7 goals at this point, and scored most of them in the 2 games recently against Florida over in Finland. And Connor Hellebuyck in net has not looked like himself this year as he has a 3.01 GAA and a .907 SV%.  It is more important to the team that Hellebuyck finds his game than Laine, but both would be fantastic. In the mean time though they're led up front by their captain Blake Wheeler who has become a dish master with 14 of his 16 pts being assists.  Their PP is absolutely on fire as it is the 2nd ranked unit in the league with a 33.3%. Which funny enough, 33 is the number Dustin Byfuglien wears, and he is 2nd on the team in PP pts with 7...fun little connection there.  The PK is underwhelming though and definitely needs improvement. 

In 4th place and the 1st Wild Card spot in the Western Conference at the moment are the upstart Colorado Avalanche.  Led by one of the best lines in hockey with MacKinnon, Landeskog, and Rantanen, the Avalanche are showing some dynamic and explosive prowess on the offense side of things.  Did I mention that out of that top line, all 3 of them are in the top 10 of league scoring and that Rantanen actually leads everyone with 24 pts?  Well now I have. In net Varlamov has returned to the form of a Vezina Candidate post a 2.12 GAA and a .936 SV%.  As a team their GF/G is 2nd in the league at 3.7, while only allowing 2.8, a damn good ratio there. Their PK is tied for 6th in the league currently and the PP is 7th in the league.  A good place to be and a strong indicator of how the team is playing.  If these numbers keep up then look for the Av's to finish in one of the top 3 spots in division, not a Wild Card spot. 

The confusing Dallas Stars are sitting in 5th place. I say they're confusing because they looks like they have all the talent in the world and should have a breakout season any year now, but they never do. Currently though they're only 1 pt out of a Wild Card spot so they're not out of it yet, not by a long shot.  They're getting balanced production up and down the line up and are led by the big guns as expected.  Problem is they're not getting enough production...yet.  They only have scored 40 goals so far as as team and that is tied for last in the division with the Wild, and they're 2nd in goals against only allowing 34.  The most important improvements though come defensively and in goal.  While the PP is clicking along at a respectable 23.7%, the PK seems pretty dominate at 85%.  That's good for 6th in the league and one spot behind the Wild.  In goal Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin are both playing pretty stellar.  Bishop has a 2.32 GAA, while Khudobin has a 2.35 GAA, and both have a .923 SV%...not a bad combo.  If things keep up and they can find a bit more offense while maintaining the defense side of things they should reach a playoff spot. 

Sitting just 1 point back of the Stars sits the Chicago Blackhawks.  I would say this was unexpected, but to do that is kind of like betting against the house, you just cant count them out.  They have to much talent and have won to much to have two bad years in a row, even though they're in 6th place out of a possible 7.  Leading the way is the one and only Patrick Kane.  Say what you want about him as a person off the ice, the guy has some of the best skill we've ever seen in the game and probably the 2nd best back hand behind only Crosby.  They, like many other teams, have pretty balanced scoring but like the Stars, they aren't getting enough of it right now.  They're in a 3-way (giggity?) tie with 3.1 GF/G.  But unlike the teams they're tied with they're allowing 3.7 GA/G,  definitely not a winning strategy.  They have the 5th worst PP in the league at 14% and their PK is the 10th worst at 76.6%.  These are not winning numbers, expect the Hawks to fall away from the pack in the next month or so. 

And last but not least...or maybe so... the St. Louis Blues.  Now I'll admit, this one upsets me as I had them as one of my improved teams.  The additions of O'Reilly and Bozak up the middle make for some great center depth but it seems that only O'Reilly (who seems to have a nice highlight every night) has taken off.  Looking at the players stats lines as well, its hard to ignore the collective group of minuses on the team.  That's something of a shock based on the fact that as a team they're 2nd in the division and tied for 3rd in the league in GF/G at 3.5.  But the GA/G is tied for 2nd worst in the league at 3.9.  The also have the 3rd best PP in the league with a 31.3% and the PK is at 80%, which is respectable but needs some improvement for sure.  Obviously goal tending is the biggest problem though.  Jake Allen seems to have fallen off his horse so to speak as he has a horrendous 3.99 GAA and a .879 SV% which is the 2nd worst SV% out of starting goalie in the league, only Mike Smith of Calgary is worse.  Expect talk to heat up about who from the Blue could be Trade Deadline Trade Bait. 

And with that we conclude our look at the Central Division exactly one month into the season!  Its a heated race to the playoffs for sure and I would expect some shuffling from a few of these teams before it is all said and done.  There will especially be a heated race for those Wild Card positions as these teams are surely not slouches and the teams we'll look at next in the Pacific are not either. And boy oh boy are there some shocking out comes there so far, and I'll be back to examine them next!