NHL Trade Deadline Winners & Losers

The NHL’s trade deadline brought some major shakeups that could change everything about this year’s Stanley Cup race.

The biggest splash? The Florida Panthers shocked everyone by grabbing Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins. They also picked up star defenseman Seth Jones from Chicago, making last year’s Cup champions even scarier.

The Dallas Stars weren’t about to be left behind. They landed Mikko Rantanen from Carolina and locked him up with an eight-year deal. Adding a top-10 offensive talent to an already stacked team? That’s the kind of move that wins championships.

It was a seller’s market this year, and teams with players to trade made out like bandits.

Seattle cashed in big time, getting two first-round picks for Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde. The Islanders weren’t far behind, scoring a top prospect and a first-rounder for Brock Nelson, who isn’t even signed past this season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are going all-in on their rebuild. After a bunch of deals, they’ve now got 31 draft picks over the next three years – more than any other team in the league.

But not everyone’s celebrating.

Carolina’s having a rough time getting star players to stick around. First Jake Guentzel last summer, now Rantanen – both didn’t want to sign long-term. Sure, they got some good picks in return, but their Cup chances just took a big hit.

The Detroit Red Wings’ situation is getting pretty frustrating. They’re on the playoff bubble but didn’t address any of their big needs. Even worse, they picked up another questionable goalie contract with Petr Mrazek. That’s eight straight years without playoffs – and counting?

Speaking of goalies, the Edmonton Oilers made some nice moves to shore up their defense, but they’re still rolling the dice with their shaky netminding situation. That could come back to bite them in the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Kings added Andrei Kuzmenko, but that’s probably not enough firepower to keep up with the West’s big boys. After three straight first-round exits, they needed to do more.

Teams aren’t done dealing with the fallout from these moves. With the playoffs around the corner, we’ll see pretty quickly who made the right calls.