NHL Trade Deadline 2015: Twitter Reaction and Analysis

Monday was a good time to be an NHL fan as the trade deadline officially slammed shut. It was hard to keep up as several deals became official throughout the morning and afternoon.

The Tampa Bay Lightning barely waited for the calendar to turn over to March 2 before working the phones and finalizing two trades. They first dealt Brett Connolly to the Boston Bruins for second-round picks in 2015 and 2016, per the Bruins' official site. The bigger trade saw Tampa Bay trade two picks and Radko Gudas to the Philadelphia Flyers for Braydon Coburn, per Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

Coburn played nine seasons and 576 games for the Flyers, so leaving Philadelphia wasn't easy. It certainly wasn't the kind of way to wake up after a good night's sleep, per Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com:

However, he found a great way to break the news to his daughter, per Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times:

Flyers general manager Ron Hextall thinks Coburn won't have any trouble finding a role on the Lightning's roster, per Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Tampa Bay is already well within the playoff hunt. The Lighting are the second-place team in the Atlantic Division and 11 points ahead of the Bruins for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Giving up two picks plus Gudas was a sign of the team's intent—it's gunning for the Stanley Cup.

TSN's Shawn Simpson puts Tampa Bay at the top of the totem pole in the East:

Although they're at the other end of the spectrum, the Columbus Blue Jackets made a couple of deals on Monday, first sending Jordan Leopold to the Minnesota Wild for Justin Falk and a fifth-round pick in 2015, per Fox Sports North's Phil Ervin.

The deal was perhaps most noteworthy for the fact that Leopold's daughter, Jordyn, wrote a letter to the Wild imploring they trade for her father, per KFAN 100.3 in Minneapolis:

It apparently worked, with Leopold, a Golden Valley, Minnesota, native and former Minnesota Golden Gopher, heading home.

Columbus wrapped up its deadline-day action by trading James Wisniewski and a 2015 third-rounder to the Anaheim Ducks for Rene Bourque, William Karlsson and a 2015 second-rounder, per NHL.com.

Dan Rosen of NHL.com thinks Wisniewski was a necessary upgrade for Anaheim but that the team gave up a lot to get him:

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen spoke about how this trade is more about building for the future since Columbus is unlikely to make the postseason this year:

One of the first deals to go through on deadline day saw veteran defenseman Zbynek Michalek move to the St. Louis Blues. The Blues announced they sent prospect Maxim Letunov and a conditional pick to the Arizona Coyotes.

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding Michalek is when he'll be able to actually suit up for St. Louis. He's still out with an upper-body injury. The 32-year-old is hoping for a speedy return to the ice, per Sarah McLellan of AZCentral.com:

Rosen thinks Michalek will really bolster the Blues defense:

ESPN's John Buccigross provided his thoughts on Letunov:

As long as Michalek can get back to 100 percent, he'll be a shrewd addition for the Blues. According to NHL.com, he was second on the Coyotes in blocked shots (139).

The Blues also added veteran center Olli Jokinen, sending Joakim Lindstrom and a conditional sixth-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs, per Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star. As the Globe and Mail's James Mirtle joked, Jokinen has a lot of time to get settled in with the Leafs:

Bruce Arthur of the Star and Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun don't anticipate the 36-year-old shedding any tears about the trade:

All in all, it was a somewhat underwhelming deadline day, but that was to expect with the flurry of trades that had happened over the past couple of days and weeks.

And as is always the case, it's tough to determine the winners or losers until a few months from now, by which time it will be easier to draw conclusions on which deals worked out and which didn't.