7 Teams That Did the Best Business at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline
The storm has passed. The skies will clear.
And the NHL will continue toward an imminent chase for the Stanley Cup.
But the question now that the yearly trade deadline is in the rear-view mirror is exactly how much the deals swung leading up to Friday at 3 p.m. ET will contribute to a title parade.
No fewer than 19 trades occurred on Friday alone to cap off a frenetic week in which nearly all of the league's 32 teams contributed to a remarkable 37 official transactions.
Needless to say, some deals were received well by fanbases and others less so. Given that reality, the B/R hockey staff took a look at the moves and compiled a list of the teams that we thought had the most success navigating the roster-reshaping waters.
Take a look at what we came up with and let us know what you think with a comment.
Boston Bruins
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The Boston Bruins have already had quite the 2022-23 season.
They've lost exactly eight of 61 games in regulation, lead the league in goal differential (among other things) and are 16 points clear of the second-place New Jersey Devils in the overall standings.
Still, they're clearly not resting on lofty laurels.
General Manager Don Sweeney was among the league's busiest pre-deadline executives as he swung a pair of significant deals in pursuit of the franchise's first championship banner since 2010-11.
The Bruins got things going eight days before the deadline with a three-team deal in which they acquired defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals and prospect Andrei Svetlakov from the Minnesota Wild.
Orlov has been an immediate boon, scoring three times and producing eight points in his first four games with Boston, while Hathaway has added a pair of assists while averaging just more than 12 minutes per game.
The cost? Thirty-three-year-old forward Craig Smith, a first-round and a fifth-round draft pick in this summer's draft, a third-rounder pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and second-round pick in 2025.
But things didn't stop there.
The Bruins finalized one of the most significant deals of the final 24 pre-deadline hours when they shipped a conditional first-rounder in 2024 and a fourth-rounder in 2025 to the Detroit Red Wings for forward Tyler Bertuzzi.
Orlov, Hathaway and Bertuzzi are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents in the summer, so there's a chance Boston could wind up with none of them going forward and a gaping hole on the draft board. But if they're each taking part in a championship parade down Tremont Street in late June, it'll be a good pain.
Edmonton Oilers
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There's something you might notice about the teams on this list.
Each of them resides in the Eastern Conference.
Except for the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers have the league's best player in Connor McDavid, one of its top snipers in Leon Draisaitl and they're fresh off a run to the Western Conference finals last spring.
But they've struggled finding consistency in 2022-23, not because of the generationally producing McDavid, but largely because of a leaky defensive corps that's allowed better than 31 shots per game in front of goaltending best described as streaky.
Still, while northern Alberta burned, a cash-strapped GM Ken Holland seemed to fiddle.
Until Tuesday, that is, when the former Detroit Red Wings architect finalized an initial deal and freed up money by sending underachieving former No. 4 overall pick Jesse Puljujarvi to the Carolina Hurricanes for an unsigned draft choice, and followed it up with a game-changer that brought hulking blue-liner Mattias Ekholm and a sixth-round pick in 2024 from Nashville for a haul that included defenseman Tyson Barrie, recent first-round pick Reid Schaefer, a first-rounder in 2023 and a fourth-rounder in 2024.
Ekholm is signed through 2025-26, which means he'll be in the fold as Holland tries to prop the championship window open for the remaining three years on McDavid's contract.
As a follow-up, Holland added some bottom-six size and depth when he nabbed 6'6" forward Nick Bjugstad from the Arizona Coyotes for an AHL defenseman and a 3rd-round pick in 2023.
Given the lack of a significant needle-mover elsewhere in the West and Edmonton's standing just five points off the conference lead heading into Friday, the veteran executive may have simultaneously saved his reputation and made the Oilers an unlikely Cup Final favorite.
New Jersey Devils
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Raise your hand if you were all-in on the New Jersey Devils in October.
The Devils were 28th overall in a 32-team league last season, and, though they'd made some improvements in the offseason, seemed far more likely to contend on the fringe of the Eastern wild-card race than for the Metropolitan Division title or a high-end playoff seed.
Their 40-15-5 record through 60 games shows they've got the stuff for the long haul, though, and GM Tom Fitzgerald gave a transactional thumbs-up for a title run with a Sunday trade that brought high-profile forward Timo Meier from his purgatory with the San Jose Sharks to a dynamic offensive group that includes recent No. 1 picks Jack Hughes (2019) and Nico Hischier (2017).
New Jersey entered Friday's games fifth in the league in overall scoring and fourth in goals per game, numbers that ought to only increase with the addition of Meier, who had 31 goals in 55 games with the Sharks this season after netting a career-high 35 in 2021-22.
He'll be a restricted free agent come the summer with a significant qualifying offer due, so it'll take some work for Fitzgerald to keep him in the Garden State long term, but getting him (and four others, plus a draft pick) for the stretch drive and the postseason—even at the cost of four players and three picks—is the kind of risk championship-seeking teams make.
Welcome back to the big time, New Jersey. It's been awhile.
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New York Rangers
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There's no in like all-in.
And there's no team that went as all-in as the New York Rangers.
Starving for the organization's first Stanley Cup since 1994, GM Chris Drury got the party started on February 9 when he brought sniper Vladimir Tarasenko, his 262 career goals, and defenseman Niko Mikkola over from the St. Louis Blues for Sammy Blais, Hunter Skinner and conditional draft picks.
The move for the 31-year-old Russian, who's on course for unrestricted free agency this summer, was considered an alternative to a full-on pursuit of Chicago Blackhawks cornerstone Patrick Kane, who was playing out the string on an awful team after winning three Stanley Cups from 2009-10 and 2014-15.
But just when it looked like Kane was headed elsewhere, he wasn't.
Drury got the second half of the high-profile scoring duo on Tuesday, luring Kane from his Windy City home as part of a three-team deal that also included the Arizona Coyotes.
The Rangers got Kane and defenseman Cooper Zech from Chicago while sending defenseman Andy Welinski, a conditional second-round draft pick this summer and a fourth-rounder in 2025 to the Blackhawks.
Not exactly a premium to pay for a 446-goal scorer with a trophy case that includes the Calder, the Art Ross, the Conn Smythe and the Hart.
And if the new-look Rangers, who already had Vezina (Igor Shesterkin) and Norris (Adam Fox) winners in the fold, parlay a 35-18-9 start into a deep run through the Eastern Conference playoff gauntlet, Drury will never have to pay for a drink at the The Delta Sky360° Club for as long as he lives.
Ottawa Senators
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On the flip side of the New Jersey Devils, find the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators were just 26th overall in the 2021-22 standings but they were among the undisputed winners of the transactional offseason, luring free agent Claude Giroux to the Canadian capital alongside trades that netted reliable goalie Cam Talbot from Minnesota and productive forward Alex DeBrincat from Chicago.
A Stanley Cup wasn't necessarily expected. But rapid improvement was.
Instead, Ottawa languished through the season's first half and was just 17-17-3 through January 1. But it's been better lately, to the tune of 15-9-1 through the last 25 games, a run that got the Senators within four points of the Eastern playoff cutline entering Friday.
So, GM Pierre Dorion decided it was time to act. Again.
He did so in earnest on Wednesday, making a deal for defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who'd been rumored on his way out of Arizona for months. The 24-year-old is signed for two more seasons at a reasonable $4.6 million annually, which means he'll be on hand to stabilize and provide offense from the blue line as the rest of a young core rounds into shape.
The cost of a first-rounder in 2023 and second-rounders in 2024 and 2026 isn't cheap, but given the 6'2", 210-pounders perceived upside it's not too big a reach either.
"It's a great day for the franchise," Dorion told Sportsnet. "For us to add a player the caliber of Jakob Chychrun, I think it's exciting for our fans, exciting for the players in that room."
Toronto Maple Leafs
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This just in: 1967 was a long time ago.
And though nearly every GM before Kyle Dubas has swung a deal that seemed a step toward ending the Toronto Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup drought, it's still been 55 years.
But if the non-title run reaches 56 years this spring, it won't be on Dubas.
The fifth-year boss has swung for and beyond the fences on behalf of the Toronto faithful this time around, starting better than two weeks before the deadline with a deal that brought former Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winner Ryan O'Reilly from the St. Louis Blues along with Noel Acciari in a three-team trade that also included the Wild.
Two players and three draft picks are headed out in exchange for O'Reilly and Acciari, but Dubas dug in again 10 days later when he grabbed another defenseman in Jake McCabe, forward Sam Lafferty and a pair of future fifth-round picks from Chicago for two players and two picks.
The blue line was buoyed again on Tuesday when a third-rounder in 2023 was sent out to Vancouver to get former first-rounder and two-time Cup winner Luke Schenn from the Canucks.
Toronto is running second in the Atlantic Division these days and sets up for a first-round playoff rematch against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Still, the flurry of transactions is geared to not only reverse the result of last spring's seven-game loss, but to get the Maple Leafs far closer to the promised land than they've been since their last series win in 2004 and beyond the five final-four appearances they've managed since the last banner raise on Yonge Street.
"We are happy with where we are at," Dubas said, "and we are excited for the last quarter of the season to get ourselves ready and secure our spot in the playoffs and be ready to roll from there."
Team Reloads: Detroit, Nashville, Washington
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Of course, not every team looks at the deadline with Cup-raise aspirations.
Neither the Detroit Red Wings, nor the Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals were in playoff positions heading into Friday's games, and while the deals they finalized may not change that reality they may ensure the wait for the next berth won't be prolonged.
The Capitals did both the Bruins and Maple Leafs a solid with the aforementioned deals that sent Orlov and Hathaway to Boston and Erik Gustafsson and a first-round pick to Toronto, but they stocked up with two players and three picks in those deals, not to mention the third-rounder that came from Minnesota for forward Marcus Johansson.
The Predators had their hands in deals both big and small, including the trade that sent Ekholm to Edmonton for Barrie and a 2023 first-rounder (among others), and the minor exchanges that still netted them forwards Austin Rueschhoff and Rasmus Asplund and a 2024 second-rounder for a composite outlay including forward Nino Niederreiter and a seventh-rounder in 2025.
And the Red Wings were perhaps the most future-focused of the bunch, sending Bertuzzi, defenseman Filip Hronek and forward Jakub Vrana out for a return of a first- and second-rounder this summer, a first-rounder in 2024, and both a fourth- and seventh-rounder in 2025 along with forward Dylan McLaughlin.
The Bruins, Maple Leafs and Oilers are the immediate beneficiaries, but make no mistake, when the numbers are recounted again in a season or two (or three), don't be surprised if Detroit, Nashville and Washington are reaping their own deadline rewards.
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