Tomas Hertl and the 5 Biggest Takeaways from 2024 NHL Trade Deadline Week

With 3 p.m. ET behind us, the 2024 NHL trade deadline is officially over.

While the day itself was a bit of a dud before Vegas swept in yet again, the week that was featured a lot of tough decisions, pleasant surprises and hard goodbyes.

In the immediate wake of it all, one thing feels obvious: This was a tough year for sellers. The cap is set to rise significantly for the first time in years, so ample salary retention was required with so many transactions. First-round picks were hard to come by. Buyers got creative with their "conditional" pick stipulations.

You've also got the Vegas Golden Knights changing the landscape of these operations. They're in win-now mode, and sometimes you'd think they're the only team in the NHL that feels they want to win. At the very least, you're asking yourself today what's stopping several other teams from being this aggressive.

The Carolina Hurricanes are one team exempt from this reckoning, as they shifted from their generally rigid philosophy and acquired the perfect rental for them in Jake Guentzel.

Where do the heavy-hitters around the league stand now? Which teams failed their assignments? What about the goalies?!

Let's kick off some immediate post-deadline analysis with the five biggest takeaways of the moment.

Vegas Stuns the Hockey World with Trade for Tomáš Hertl

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SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 28: Tomas Hertl #48 of the San Jose Sharks stretches before the game against the Edmonton Oilers at SAP Center on December 28, 2023 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Andreea Cardani/NHLI via Getty Images)

Every step of the way to this trade deadline, the Vegas Golden Knights laughed in the faces of the rest of the league in a fashion that has become so classically "them."

Now that the clock has struck 3 p.m., they have to be done acquiring players. Right...? Right. They're rule exposers, not rule-breakers.

Let's recap their whole deadline:

To LTIR: Mark Stone, $9.5 million in cap relief

To Vegas: F Anthony Mantha at 50 percent retained
To Washington: 2024 second-round pick, 2026 fourth-round pick

To Vegas: D Noah Hanifin at a $1,237,500 cap hit
To Calgary: D Daniil Miromanov, 2026 first-round pick, 2025 third-round pick (becomes a second if Vegas wins a playoff round), 50 percent of Hanifin's salary retained
To Flyers: 2024 fifth-round pick, 25 percent of Hanifin's salary retained

To Vegas: C Tomas Hertl at 17 percent retained, 2025 third-round pick, 2027 third-round pick
To Sharks: 2025 first-round pick, top prospect David Edstrom

Vegas did a little bit of everything, here, and it's a lot to unpack. Mantha at 50 percent retained is a perfect rental—he's pricey and is coming off a few tough years but is on pace for a career year now. The Golden Knights will capitalize off that for half off, and then he's off their books at the end of the season. You'll notice they didn't surrender a first-rounder for him, and they still had their 2025 first for the last-minute push on Hertl.

The price was steep for the consistent center, but here's the kicker: the 30-year-old still has six seasons left on his contract, and the Sharks are retaining through its 2029-30 expiration, so Vegas gets him at $6.75 million per year.

I said it the second Vegas started cooking and acquired Mantha: Instead of asking yourself why the Golden Knights tend to make the most of the LTIR rules, maybe you should ask yourself why your team doesn't. Every move Vegas made had me questioning what the heck some other GMs were waiting for.

The goal here is to win. The goal here is to provide an entertaining product. The goal here is to use the rules to your advantage.

The Vegas Golden Knights get it.

The Western Conference Will Be a Battle Royal

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Tyler Toffoli

The differences in the conference complexions impacted the trade deadline this year.

Where the East has a heated wild-card race that puts many teams right on the line of buying vs. selling, the West has a clearer distinction between the top and the bottom. The top teams in the West were ultra-prepared to make big swings, especially knowing their in-conference opponents would be doing the same.

The West set its tone before the deadline period even really began, with Elias Lindholm sold to Vancouver in late January and Dallas swooping in on Chris Tanev last week before anyone else had a chance.

Of course, the Golden Knights are the story out of the West with the boldest trade deadline of the bunch. Vegas struggled a bit after a strong start to the season and now finds itself two points behind L.A. for third place in the Pacific. With Stone on LTIR, the Golden Knights were able to swing Mantha at 50 percent retained in a career year, acquire trade deadline darling Hanifin, and top it off with the Hertl buzzer stunner.

It's not like I'm rooting for the team or anything, but I felt oddly proud of the Winnipeg Jets for snagging Tyler Toffoli at 50 percent off from the Devils for a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick. The Jets made the clear decision to keep their playoff window open with their offseason signings, the roster held up its end of the bargain and sits at No. 2 in the Central, and now they're rewarded with a fun, coveted playoff piece in Toffoli. Nice work!

It's important to remember that making a ton of moves isn't necessarily a good thing, but most of these heavy-hitting playoff teams in the West were able to address real needs and improve on paper.

This brings us to the Predators, who improved on paper even if that isn't the direction the team should be taking at the moment. I haven't been the biggest fan of the treading water from this franchise over the past few seasons, but at the same time Nashville is in a playoff spot, and new GM Barry Trotz is right to make a few moves and establish himself in this position. They also didn't surrender too much, snagging Jason Zucker for a sixth-rounder and Anthony Beauvillier for a fifth-rounder. I'll allow it.

The Eastern Conference Final Might Be a Rematch

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Sam Bennett and Jordan Staal

Two small-market teams had the best trade deadlines in the East, and they did it in very different ways.

The No. 1-seeded Panthers had to be careful not to make too many significant changes while still giving the roster a little oomph. I've heard from several Florida players this is an extremely tight-knit group and the best locker room vibe many have been a part of. This shows on the ice often, like how the team is full of players stepping up when star Matthew Tkachuk is fighting it.

The one upgrade they could've really used was another scoring winger to round out the top six and let Nick Cousins do his thing on the third line. Enter Vladimir Tarasenko at 50 percent retained. Despite the Senators blowing it, Tarasenko's been having a great season and it would've been a shame to see that go to waste.

The Panthers have been quite aggressive in their dealings in the past, and it's gotten them to this point. One small tweak was perfect here.

Then you've got the opposite situation in Carolina, where the Hurricanes decided to go all-in after years of calculation and plenty of restraint—especially concerning trade-deadline rentals.

The Hurricanes snagged the most coveted rental this year in Jake Guentzel. They decided that wasn't enough and also picked up Evgeny Kuznetsov at 50 percent retained for center depth. Kuznetsov, like many veteran Capitals, has taken a downturn the past few seasons. But the Hurricanes are historically great at helping players turn it around, and with some regained confidence, a fresh start and less pressure, Kuznetsov could pan out.

The Southeastern Division is alive and well, folks.

The Goalie Market Will Heat Up in the Summer

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Jacob Markström.

The Devils didn't have to rush into acquiring a goaltender this trade deadline.

I mean, they should've rushed into doing that last offseason, but that ship has long sailed. At this point, six points and three teams out of the second Eastern wild-card spot, the potential for the disappointing season to turn around was bleak.

So New Jersey decided to be realistic, selling Tyler Toffoli and acquiring veteran netminder Jake Allen at 50 percent retained. Allen cannot be the full answer for the future, but with another year left in his contract, he could be a backup option, or the Devils could retain even more of his salary in an offseason acquisition of Jacob Markström or Linus Ullmark. They also swapped Vitek Vanecek for Kaapo Kähkönen, but that isn't a long-term solution either.

This deadline had the potential for an interesting goalie market, with the Flames becoming extreme sellers and Ullmark rumored in several chats as Boston looked to add center depth and/or defense. Ultimately, though, it was a dud and it reminded us that you should never assume you'll be able to snag a premier goaltender at the trade deadline. Teams are understandably fickle when it comes to the position, and things are much more likely to fall through when making deals in net.

There's also my favorite topic: the rising cap. With the ceiling expected to significantly increase in the offseason, it makes the most sense for teams to hold off and take a gander at the new goalie market then.

All of this sets the scene for a rather juicy July. Stay tuned!

The Rangers, Bruins, Canucks and Maple Leafs Fail to Gain Ground on Rivals

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Tyler Bertuzzi and Parker Wotherspoon

This was a buyer's market in the sense that many players went for cheaper than expected, and in the sense that tons of salary was retained in light of the soon-to-rise cap. It was also interesting to see salary retention used by buyers for leverage, a la the Predators snagging Jason Zucker for just a sixth-round pick because they took on his full contract.

But it wasn't necessarily a buyer's market in the quantity of the quality available. Specifically when it came to defense, Dallas immediately took the No. 1 target in Tanev off the board, a Hanifin deal finally came to fruition, Sean Walker was a nice get for the Avalanche (and commanded a first-rounder partially due to defenseman scarcity), but the rest of the defensive dealings were essentially depth.

Still, there were some surprises in what anticipated buyers weren't able to accomplish. The Bruins had plans to ship Ullmark out but he and his trade clause vetoed the deal. You thought the Rangers might feel an added sense of urgency on the depth-scoring front after the Hurricanes won the Jake Guentzel battle, but Anaheim's ask for Frank Vatrano was too high. New York did acquire Jack Roslovic from the Blue Jackets for a conditional fourth-rounder right before the buzzer. Roslovic will chip in on offense no doubt, but you thought New York would accomplish Vatrano or Pavel Buchnevich.

Both forwards are staying put with their teams, though, and so is Elias Lindholm with Vancouver. The Canucks had a pretty disappointing deadline when you look at the moves the teams around them in the West made. You get the sense once they missed out on the Tanev sweepstakes they just kind of called it a day. At least the team accomplished the most important task of all in Elias Pettersson's extremely reasonable extension.

The Leafs added two depth defensemen to their roster—Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin—and both are fine reinforcements down the playoff stretch. Neither scratch the itch a Tanev or even a Hanifin would've.

If this trade deadline, a buyer's market but also a slim-picking market, taught us anything, it taught us if you have a specific need, there's no sense in waiting around to go get it. Especially in a world where the Vegas Golden Knights exist.