The NHL’s 2024-25 trade deadline was on Friday at 3 p.m. ET, and some big names, like Mikko Rantanen and Brad Marchand, changed teams to significantly alter the balance of power in the NHL.
Let’s examine the winners and losers from Friday’s moves.
Winners
Sellers: This deadline season was a big-time sellers’ market, with rental players going for significant prices.
Seattle got two first-round picks for Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde, Pittsburgh got second-round picks for Anthony Beauvillier and Luke Schenn and the New York Islanders managed to get a top prospect (Calum Ritchie) and a first-round pick for pending UFA Brock Nelson.
It paid to be bad this season and have players to move.
Dallas Stars: After getting Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci from San Jose on Feb. 1, it looked like that might be Dallas’s one big move.
It was not.
On Friday, they snuck in and snagged Rantanen from Carolina, signing him to an eight-year contract extension to keep him from hitting free agency. Dallas already had one of the best teams in the league, and now it is adding a top-10 offensive player. This is a Stanley Cup-worthy roster.
Pittsburgh’s rebuild: With Friday’s series of trades (Beauvillier to Washington, Cody Glass to New Jersey and Luke Schenn to Winnipeg), combined with their earlier trades this season, the Penguins now have more draft picks (31) over the next three years than any other team in the league. They also have some significant salary cap space to work with.
That is a lot of resources they can utilize in many different ways.
Florida Panthers: The defending Stanley Cup champions made two massive deals in the week leading up to the deadline, landing defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then shocking everybody by acquiring Marchand from the Boston Bruins.
The Marchand deal is the real needle-mover because he is still a top-line player and helps make the Panthers one of the league’s most physical — and hated — teams. Facing them in the playoffs will be a chore.
Losers
Carolina’s reputation: A few weeks ago, Getting Rantanen from Colorado looked like a home run trade that would give them a chance to win the Stanley Cup this season. Then they couldn’t get him signed, and instead of using him for one run at the Cup, they traded him to Dallas for Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks and two third-round picks.
In a vacuum, in terms of long-term assets, Carolina is probably further ahead now than it was at the start of the season. But that is not the problem. The problem is that another top-tier player did not want to re-sign with them. It happened last summer with Jake Guentzel, and it happened again here. Their chances for a Stanley Cup are not as good as they looked a few weeks ago.
Steve Yzerman’s plan in Detroit: It’s getting harder and harder to understand the approach here.
Detroit did nothing to help its cause in terms of making the playoffs this season by not addressing any of its pressing needs. Even worse, it added another bad goalie contract in Petr Mrazek in a trade with Chicago. They are outside the playoff picture and could miss for the ninth consecutive season and sixth under Yzerman.
Edmonton Oilers goaltending: Edmonton made a strong trade to upgrade its defense by getting Jake Walman from the San Jose Sharks. That is the good news.
The bad news is that the Oilers did nothing to address their problematic goaltending situation, so they risk going into the playoffs with a major Achilles heel at the one position that could dramatically change a series or a season.
Los Angeles Kings offense: The Kings are on their way to the playoffs for the fourth year in a row but are coming off three straight first-round exits. A fourth consecutive early exit would be wildly disappointing, especially if it comes at the hands of the Oilers again.
The Kings’ biggest weakness is still their lack of offensive impact scorers. The only move they made ahead of the deadline was to acquire Andrei Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers. However, that will not be enough to compete with the top teams in the Western Conference.
