NHL Trades Grades for Every Deal Made on a Wild Wednesday Before the Deadline

With just days left before the 2024 NHL trade deadline, general managers got into gear and decided to pony up their best offers on Wednesday.

Six trades were announced by teams all with Stanley Cup aspirations: the Panthers, Avalanche, Oilers, the Golden Knights and Rangers.

With so much going on, the B/R NHL staff came together to break down each trade in finer detail and provide a grade.

Do you have your takes on all the activity? Submit your thoughts in the comments section of the app.

Vegas Cashes in and Trades for Noah Hanifin

Vegas Golden Knights

Surprise! The Vegas Golden Knights made a trade at the trade deadline.

Whether you like the tactic of weaponizing the free cap space provided to the Golden Knights after Mark Stone's lacerated spleen injury forced him to LTIR or not, you have to admit that Vegas is playing by the rules. It's not their fault the LTIR cap loophole that has been exploited by other teams before them is still around.

As for Noah Hanifin, the No. 1 defenseman left on the market got his wish to be traded to an American team. With Alec Martinez hitting injured reserve and an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, general manager Kelly McCrimmon has decided to - pardon the pun - go all in and shoot for Vegas' second consecutive Stanley Cup. The Golden Knights have strong physical defensemen such as Alec Pietrangelo and Martinez, but Hanifin gives them a different dimension on the blue line as a smooth-skating defenseman who can move the puck out of the zone quickly.

Draft picks have never been important to Vegas and the thought of striking while the odds are strong for a second Cup run makes all the sense in the world.

The only problem with the deal is Vegas has yet to agree to an extension with Hanifin. But that's a question for another day. For now, Vegas' deadline haul of Hanifin and Anthony Mantha makes them a formidable threat in the West.

Grade: A

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Calgary Flames

We'll continue the puns as the Flames continue their deadline fire sale.

General manager Craig Conroy has had to trade pending unrestricted free agents Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev already this season, so it wasn't any surprise that Hanifin was the next to be traded. Still, it must be bitter for the Flames to see the trend continue of talented players leaving Calgary from Matthew Tkachuk to Johnny Gaudreau to now Hanifin.

The return of a first-round pick was the very minimum that Conroy needed, but he'll be disappointed he didn't get more from Vegas. The conditional third-round pick is nothing more than a consolation prize and, to put it kindly, Daniil Miromanov is a seventh-defenseman at best with 29 NHL games to his name. Perhaps a fresh start in Calgary could revive the 26-year-old's career, but it's not the return you would have hoped for when trading a top-pairing defenseman like Hanifin.

Grade: C

- Lucky Ngamwajasat

Vladimir Tarasenko Heads to Stacked Panthers

Florida Panthers

The more you think about how well Vladimir Tarasenko was actually doing in Ottawa, the more puzzling the already puzzling 2023-24 Senators become. But even with 17 goals and 41 points in 57 games, 32-year-old Tarasenko just isn't built to save a team. He contributed just fine to the Rangers despite their first-round exit last season, too.

What he is going to do is enhance the No. 1 team in the league. The Panthers are seeking anything but saving and have virtually no flagrant issues. The Panthers went into the deadline actively avoiding too much change to a locker room Matthew Tkachuk told me is the closest he's ever been in.

The on-ice fit feels nearly perfect, as Tarasenko can slot right into Nick Cousins' spot on the second line and provide a few more goals while Cousins' pesky but important role on the team will barely change.

Grade: A-

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Ottawa Senators

The trend of salary retention continued partially because of all the one-year deals signed last offseason amid cap ceiling uncertainty. It's not as big of a problem for sellers to eat some money in an already lost season, and that's what the Senators did in retaining 50 percent of Tarasenko's one-year, $5 million deal.

Ottawa received a 2025 third-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick from Florida, which isn't the best haul ever, but the leverage wasn't fully there with Tarasenko's pending free agency.

Grade: B-

- Sara Civian

Avalanche Add to Blue-Line Depth by Acquiring Sean Walker from Flyers

Colorado Avalanche

This was one of those situations we armchair GMs hypothesize about before the deadline but are more often than not merely an exercise in imagination.

Sean Walker was one of the most coveted blueliners of the deadline for a reason, as he's emerged as a serviceable and productive mid-pairing defenseman in a career year with the Flyers. You wondered if the Flyers would buy or sell, considering they're actively rebuilding but also enjoying a fun present in a pretty secure playoff spot.

This made you think that if they were to trade Walker, the price would be steep, and it was if you look at the rest of the deals so far. Walker and a 2026 fifth-round pick went to the Avalanche in exchange for Ryan Johansen and a 2025 first-round pick (top-10-protected), which immediately raised a few questions. The most glaring: It's a nice get for any playoff team, but does Colorado really need Walker?

We'd find out minutes later that Colorado had also traded young defenseman Bowen Byram to the Sabres for middle-six center Casey Mittelstadt, so, yes, there was a need. The Avalanche upgraded here down the middle, and that's even before the potential return of Gabriel Landeskog, and they did it while retaining solid defensive depth creatively. Nice!

Grade: B+ with the context

Philadelphia Flyers

Then there was the Flyers' side of it: Initially, you got a little excited for a Ryan Johansen and John Tortorella reunion. Then you sort of patted the Flyers on the back for sticking to their future goals with a first-rounder and a decent depth center for the current run.

But wait...then they waived him?!

It appears as though this was a move proposed from Colorado's end to clear up cap space, and suddenly things make a bit more sense from everywhere. I'll be a bit disappointed if the Flyers don't end up doing something with their new cash after placing Johansen on waivers, but squeezing a first-rounder out of Walker and not totally abandoning the rebuild is huge.

Grade: B, subject to change

- Sara Civian

Rangers Add Center Depth with Deal for Wennberg

New York Rangers

It wasn't the sexiest deal of the day or the season.

In fact, when it comes to high-profile hockey names, Swedish-born center Alex Wennberg doesn't register far beyond his hometown and immediate family.

But what he does is provide a valuable service as a depth center who can defend high-end opposition without embarrassing himself, as he's now done for parts of 10 NHL seasons.

And in midtown Manhattan these days, on a team with a top-10 offense and a glaring need for a bottom-six center after a season-ending upper-body injury to Filip Chytil, he's a good fit.

His first goal in a Rangers uniform will get him to double digits for the fifth time in his NHL career, though he's never approached the 59 points produced with Columbus in 2016-17 that led to a six-year, $29.4 million contract that was bought out after three seasons.

Still, he's had both power-play and shorthanded points in a season five times, averaged no less than 17:51 of ice time across a full season since 2020, and was second among Seattle forwards in that category (19:17) during the team's two-round playoff run last spring.

He joins an ambitious team expecting to go that far and beyond, and the two draft picks to the Kraken are a fair return considering what centers are going for at the moment.

Grade: C+ - Wennberg provides a service, albeit a non-glamorous one

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Seattle Kraken

It's an excellent piece of business for the Kraken and general manager Ron Francis as Seattle gains draft capital and opens up a spot in the lineup for 2022 first-round draft pick Shane Wright.

Seattle is a young team and the hope is that Wright and Matty Beniers as the team's top two centers will be leading them to success in the future. Getting a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick can only be a bonus as Francis plots a path back to the postseason after a remarkable campaign last year.

Grade: B - Getting a couple of picks for a guy on his way out is a plus move

- Lyle FItzsimmons

Sabres and Avalanche Make Stunning Deal

Colorado Avalanche

I guess we got an answer to this question we posed a month ago, eh?

How many teams during this trade deadline will be able to say they acquired another team's leading scorer? The Avalanche can now because Casey Mittelstadt was Buffalo's top point-getter.

Colorado needed a center beyond Nathan MacKinnon, and Mittelstadt is that guy. He's developed into a solid two-way player, and his scoring touch that emerged last season is very good. There's a ton of skill there, but he's also an outstanding puck-battler along the boards and will help the Avs maintain possession in the offensive zone.

At 25 years old, Mittelstadt is a restricted free agent this summer and you have to think he'll get an extension to stay in Denver. The Avs have landed a very good player who has found his game and evolved in the NHL. A superb addition that, combined with adding Sean Walker from Philadelphia, allowed them to part ways with 22-year-old Bowen Byram a little easier.

Grade: A

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Buffalo Sabres

The key to moving Mittelstadt was to make sure the Sabres could get a top-four defenseman to play alongside either Rasmus Dahlin or Owen Power, and with Bowen Byram they very well may have gotten that.

Byram, the No. 4 pick in 2019, was a bit stuck in Colorado with Cale Makar and Devon Toews taking up all the big minutes to produce points and push the pace of the game. Even though Byram averaged almost 20 minutes per game with the Avs, playing with Dahlin or Power guarantees he'll play much more often. If Byram takes the next step and lives up to his draft potential (and stays healthy), it's a huge addition for Buffalo.

That said, the Sabres trading away Mittelstadt is an instant loss. But with Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens already locked in long-term and a host of prospects in the system, along with Peyton Krebs in the NHL already, they were dealing from a position of strength.

Grade: B

- Joe Yerdon

Adam Henrique Joins High-Powered Oilers

Edmonton Oilers

Welcome to the annual pre-deadline dance of the Edmonton Oilers.

The NHL's northern Alberta residents have reached this point of every recent season with a belief that they're just a tweak or two from providing Connor McDavid a genuine chance to hoist his first Stanley Cup.

The league's best player got to the Western Conference Final two seasons ago and the Oilers entered 2022-23 driven to get over the hump, adding defenseman Mattias Ekholm from Nashville at the deadline but ultimately falling to the eventual champs from Vegas.

Which brings us to this season, which started disastrously and cost coach Jay Woodcroft his job but has since blossomed and seen Edmonton post the best points percentage (.755) in the league since Kris Knoblauch was hired on November 12.

They strung together 16 wins from December to February and extended a current streak to five with a thriller at Boston on Tuesday night. All of which has the fanbase calling on Ken Holland to find a target and trigger a deal that'll revive the "City of Champions."

The veteran GM pulled it off on Wednesday by sacrificing his first-round pick this summer and a middle-round conditional pick to acquire two-way forward Adam Henrique and teammate Sam Carrick from the Anaheim Ducks.

He's neither a top-line scorer nor a Norris-worthy defenseman but Henrique does check off a lot of box for the Oilers including playoff experience, timely scoring, special teams alacrity and success on face-offs. He'll be a rental on a deal that expires in July but he's precisely the kind of player whose intangibles teammates gush over in post-championship interviews.

"We're trying to win now, we're trying to get deeper," Holland said. "I think the time is now, that's why we're doing these things."

Grade: conditional B - if Henrique hoists the Cup it's an A-plus

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Anaheim Ducks

It's all about the first-round pick for the rebuilding Ducks who are more concerned about the race for the No. 1 pick this year more than the playoff race. General manager Pat Verbeek has been busy and still has one more rumored asset in Frank Vatrano to attain more draft currency.

And while recent results have been less than stellar, the future seems bright in Orange County.

Grade: solid A - getting a first-rounder for a UFA is a boss move

- Lyle FItzsimmons