NHL Trade Deadline 2025: The Five Biggest Winners - Yahoo Sports
A handful of NHL clubs truly nailed it during the trade deadline season.
With the deadline now passed, it's time to declare the winners based on which teams got what they looked for depending on the stage in their competitive cycle. Let's get to it.
The Stars entered the season as a Stanley Cup front-runner – and they made a blockbuster move on Friday. They also did what the Carolina Hurricanes couldn't.
The Stars acquired star right winger Mikko Rantanen from Carolina for right winger Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks and two third-round picks. That move, combined with Dallas’ acquisition of right winger Mikael Granlund from San Jose, made an already-dangerous Stars lineup all the more lethal.
Rantanen signed an eight-year contract extension at $12 million per season – a number that might have been higher had he landed in another market. (Dallas' taxes are slightly lower than in Colorado and Carolina, for what it's worth.)
With Rantanen on the Stars’ top line and Granlund on the second line, Dallas has no discernable holes in the lineup. Dealing Stankoven was a big price to pay, but Rantanen’s impact makes it worth the move.
Stars GM Jim Nill is the back-to-back NHL GM of the year, and the moves he made before the deadline makes him a leading candidate to win it again. They also make the Stars a leading contender to win the Cup.
The Avalanche’s decision to move on from Rantanen was quite surprising and had people skeptical.
But GM Chris MacFarland took the increased salary cap flexibility that came after the deal and used it to improve his depth at forward and on defense.
Up front, he acquired Charlie Coyle from Boston for Casey Mittelstadt – which should be a better fit for the No. 3 center spot – and he picked up center Brock Nelson, many people’s pick as the top center available at the trade deadline.
On the back end, MacFarland made an impressive defense corps even better, landing Ryan Lindgren from the New York Rangers and adding veteran Erik Johnson from Philadelphia for his second tour of duty in Colorado.
All things considered, the Avs are going to be a massive handful for any opponent in the playoffs, and they’re so deep that an injury or two won’t spell the end of their season. That wasn't necessarily the case earlier in the season.
MacFarland has used his cap space very wisely, and now, the Avalanche should be considered one of the front-runners to win it all this year.
What can you say about the Panthers – other than they’re now clearly a threat to repeat as Cup champions? Florida GM Bill Zito was not satisfied with his roster – even though the team's first in the Atlantic Division.
He added a minute-munching defenseman in Seth Jones and brought on a proven winner in former Bruins captain Brad Marchand. Florida was already tough to play against. But this is another level.
Indeed, with Marchand, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart, Florida’s snot factor is off the charts.
The Panthers will want to win the Atlantic to avoid a first-round showdown against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but even then, we’d be picking Florida to win that showdown. Zito has sacrificed some of his future, but as we’ve seen in other win-now markets, trading first-round picks isn’t as much of a problem as many would think.
The Panthers will be incredibly difficult to play against. If they win the Cup for the second-straight season, their trade deadline acquisitions this year will be one of the key reasons why.
Under GM Brad Treliving, the Maple Leafs have transitioned from being an easy-offense, easy-defense team into one where their play in their own zone has been a particular strong suit.
The two key moves Treliving made on Friday have only made Toronto into a stronger defensive team.
First, the Leafs did what many expected and acquired third-line center Scott Laughton from the Flyers. Then, the Buds bolstered their defense corps by acquiring defense-minded defenseman Brandon Carlo from Boston.
It’s true Toronto paid a high price for the two players – a first-round pick and prospect Nikita Grebenkin to Philly, and prospect Fraser Minten and a first-rounder to the Bruins – but this Leafs team is in a win-or-bust scenario. A Toronto defense corps that has a top six of Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Chris Tanev, Carlo and Simon Benoit is as strong as any the Leafs have had in recent memory.
Toronto now has impressive depth and grit to spare, and Leafs fans have every right to expect a long playoff run from this group. It will be a different story if the Buds flame out in the first round, but at the moment, the Leafs are right there with the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning as the strongest teams in the Atlantic.
Not every team has to load up on talent to be considered a winner at the deadline. Boston’s stunning moves Friday certainly qualify as strong moves for the long-term.
The Bruins sent out a slew of veterans, including Marchand, Carlo, Coyle, Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau. In return, they got prospects Minten, Max Wanner, a first-round pick, a conditional second-rounder that could become a first-rounder, two second-rounders, a fourth-rounder, a sixth-rounder, youngsters William Zellers, Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov, and center Mittelstadt.
Any way you slice it, that’s quite the haul for a Bruins team that didn't look like it would make the playoffs. Boston can try a quick re-tool for next season, but they’re on this list of winners because Bruins GM Don Sweeney had the guts to soberly judge his team and sell off major parts that weren’t in the organization’s long-term plans. In our books, that clearly makes them a winner.
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