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Last year had the Mikko Rantanen saga, Brad Marchand bolting Boston for the champs, Brock Nelson leaving Long Island, Seth Jones getting swapped for Spencer Knight.
This year … did not.
Trade boards across the hockey world were left largely intact after a sleepy 2026 NHL trade deadline. Why did it happen? What did it mean? And who came out better for it?
With the perennial caveat that it could be months, if not years, until we really know who worked the most magic this week, let’s go full knee-jerk and decide this year’s winners and losers:
Winner: The citizens of St. Louis
We suggest you not underestimate the staggering drawing power of the Show-Me State. Colton Parayko had a chance to leave one of the league’s worst teams and join one of the league’s most exciting teams for what is sure to be a spectacular, long-awaited postseason environment in Buffalo. He said, “No thanks.”
St. Louis — or, perhaps more accurately, the posh St. Louis suburbs — has long held sway over NHL players. An abridged list of former Blues who have made St. Louis their home after their careers: Pat Maroon, Chris Pronger, Barrett Jackman, Al MacInnis and Kelly Chase. This has proven true in other sports as well. It can’t be the pizza — a piece of matzo loaded with ketchup and a hard film of plastic cheese — so it clearly must be a really nice place to live.
Loser: The hockey team in St. Louis
It’s one thing to be trying to move Parayko. He’s on the wrong side of 30 and signed through 2029-30, even if it is at a bargain-basement $6.5 million cap hit and even if he is still very good. But it’s quite another to be trying to deal away a 26-year-old top-line center on a long-term, team-friendly contract. If Robert Thomas doesn’t fit your projected contention window, that can only mean you’re in for many years of misery. It’s reminiscent of the Chicago Blackhawks trading a 24-year-old Alex DeBrincat and letting a 25-year-old Dylan Strome walk in 2022 because they were too old. Ask Blackhawks fans how much fun the four years since have been.
St. Louis is looking to move anything that’s not bolted down, which means GM Doug Armstrong — or more accurately, his anointed successor Alex Steen — isn’t thinking retool, but a full-blown tear-down rebuild. Not only are those painful, they rarely end in championships. That the Blues had to kick these moves down the road to the summer because Parayko used his no-movement clause and Armstrong couldn’t find anyone to meet his prices elsewhere only prolongs the pain.
Armstrong did well to get first-rounders for both Brayden Schenn (from the Islanders) and Justin Faulk (from the Red Wings). But those are just the first of what could be a long series of difficult goodbyes for a team whose situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Loser: Buffalo Sabres
The vibes are incredibly high in Buffalo, and the playoff scene in the best hockey market in America (the TV ratings back up that claim every spring) will be incredible. The Sabres have been the best team in the league for the past three months, posting a remarkable .818 points percentage, going 26-5-2. After 14 straight seasons of missing the playoffs, the Buffalo Sabres — the Buffalo Sabres! — are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
And yet, Parayko, who was a perfect fit on the back end to solidify their standing among the league’s elite, didn’t want to play there. Worse, GM Jarmo Kekäläinen tried — and failed — to recreate Parayko in the aggregate by trading for Winnipeg’s Logan Staley and Luke Schenn. Both carry a reputation for being playoff-ready defenders with playoff-friendly styles, but both were absolutely caved in by St. Louis and Dallas in last year’s playoffs. Sam Carrick is a nice, cheap depth add, at least.
The Sabres, to their credit, wanted to go big this deadline. And through no real fault of their own, they didn’t.
Winner: Player autonomy
The next time Parayko plays in Buffalo, regardless of what uniform he’s wearing (it won’t happen this season), he’s sure to be booed lustily. And there might even be a few misguided St. Louisians who harbor some resentment against him for standing in the way of what they see as necessary progress for the franchise.
But there’s a reason players negotiate no-movement clauses into their contracts. These are human beings, not chattel. In very few other jobs are employees sent against their wishes to another company in another city, even another country, with no notice. That’s unique to professional athletes. Parayko earned the right to call his shot, and he called it. Good for him.
Loser: Free agency
Free agency is dead. Long live the hockey trade. The dramatic rise in the salary cap has made it much easier for teams to re-sign their players, rendering free agency almost moot, at least when it comes to high-end talent.
Take a look at this summer’s crop of unrestricted free agents. Is a 30-year-old Nick Schmaltz the best player out there? Alex Tuch is appealing. Maybe 30-year-old late-blooming defenseman Darryn Raddysh? Anthony Mantha? It’s slim pickings.
While there were still rental deals made at the deadline — John Carlson to Anaheim, Stanley to Buffalo — we’re seeing a higher premium put on players with term. The mere fact that Parayko and Thomas were in the discussion signals a massive sea change in the way NHL GMs are thinking about acquiring talent.
Columbus traded for Conor Garland, whose six-year extension hasn’t even started yet. The Islanders acquired Brayden Schenn, who’s signed through 2028. Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox have term. Ryan O’Reilly, Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault have term. Dougie Hamilton has term. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has term. Rasmus Ristolainen has term. Elias Pettersson has a lot of term. All of them were discussed ahead of the deadline, and all of them will be discussed again this summer.
This is the new NHL reality.
Winner: Colorado Avalanche
For three years, the Avalanche tried to replace the huge hole left at second-line center by Nazem Kadri’s departure. They finally filled it last year with Brock Nelson. Now they get the best of both words, bringing back Kadri — still a productive, big-game player at 35 years old — perhaps as Nelson’s winger. With fellow deadline addition Nic Roy (an overpay, but hey, the Avs are the best team in the league and are going for it), the Avalanche suddenly have a bounty of quality centers to lean on for what they hope will be a long playoff run.
Connor McDavid didn’t get much help at the deadline. (Griffin Hooper / Imagn Images)
Loser: Connor McDavid
McDavid made it clear in his Players’ Tribune piece before the Olympics that his biological clock is ticking like this. He’s 29 and still hasn’t won anything in the NHL. The silver medal in Milan was only salt in the wound. His decision to sign a (relatively) cheap two-year extension was his way of telling general manager Stan Bowman to build him a winner, and to do it now.
Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson are good defenders who make Edmonton better at five-on-five and on the penalty kill, but they don’t add much scoring punch. It’s still all on McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to carry the load offensively. The Oilers needed a scoring winger and got two defense-first players. The Oilers needed a true No. 1 goalie and got Tristan Jarry. The extraordinary mediocrity of the Pacific Division means there’s still a path back to the final four, if not the Stanley Cup Final, for Edmonton. But Bowman didn’t do enough to make the Oilers feel like a real threat to the Colorados, Dallases, Minnesotas, Tampas, Carolinas and Buffalos of the world.
Winner: Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks are steering into the skid, and you have to respect it. This is a very exciting offensive team and a very poor defensive team. Rather than go out and get some Joel Quenneville-type defenders, guys who can boost their lousy penalty kill, the Ducks bolstered what they do best — create offense at five-on-five.
Anaheim shocked the hockey world late Thursday night by bringing Washington stalwart John Carlson across the country for first- and third-round picks. At 37 years old, Carlson’s defensive game has declined significantly. But he’s still an offensive force, enjoying his most productive season since 2021-22, and as Anaheim’s No. 3, he can be deployed in a way that plays into his strengths. He also could provide a boost to Anaheim’s perplexingly poor power play.
Can the Ducks’ freewheeling, chance-trading style work in the traditionally tight-checking playoffs? There’s reason to doubt. But it’ll be awfully fun to find out.
Loser: Minnesota Wild
Look, the fact is, Bill Guerin made the biggest and best trade of the NHL season in acquiring Quinn Hughes, who already has had a bigger impact on his team than any player acquired this week will. The Wild entered deadline season good, and they leave deadline season good. But these are the deadline winners and losers, not the full-season winners and losers. And the fact is, Ryan Hartman is still Minnesota’s No. 1 center (though it’s somewhat semantics given the presence of the outstanding Joel Eriksson Ek). It’s not ideal.
Bobby Brink is a solid middle-six scorer, even if it came at a sunk cost given everything Guerin gave up to get David Jiricek in the first place. Michael McCarron is a big body, even if Guerin overpaid a second-rounder for a player who is no more than a fourth-line center. And Nick Foligno is one of the best vibes guys in the league. Whether he settles into a fourth-line role or ends up the 13th forward, Foligno will have a positive impact on the Wild. He can’t help it. But both Brink and Foligno are luxuries.
The Wild had a need at center, and they didn’t fill it. Vincent Trocheck to Minnesota seemed as obvious as Brock Nelson to Colorado was last year, but Guerin apparently wasn’t willing to meet the Rangers’ sky-high asking price. Given how all-in Minnesota is (and should be), it’s a little disappointing. The Dallas Stars have won 10 games in a row and will likely draw the Wild in the first round. Minnesota is probably the third-best team in the league, but they won’t even be the favorite in their opening series. Guerin didn’t do enough this week to change that fact.
Loser: New York Rangers
You can fault president and general manager Chris Drury for a lot (and Rangers fans sure do), but you can’t really fault him for not panic-selling at the trade deadline. He had a bar for Trocheck (and theoretically Fox and anyone else on his roster) and nobody cleared it. But the Rangers are staring down a long and difficult few years here, and delaying the moves until this summer (at the earliest) only drags out the process further.
Getting so little for Artemi Panarin wasn’t on Drury; Panarin — like Claude Giroux and Patrick Kane and Marchand before him — had complete control of the process. But Drury did have arguably the top tradable asset on the board in Trocheck and wasn’t able to leverage the pressure of the trade deadline to maximize his value. Not yet, at least.
Winner: Toronto Maple Leafs
The Leafs have done the impossible: They’ve made themselves sympathetic figures. Not only are they mired in a miserable season while facing a difficult retool around Auston Matthews and William Nylander, who are losing prime seasons to this process, but they’re probably not even going to reap the benefits of a lost campaign.
Barring a draft-lottery win or a truly spectacular losing streak to close the season, the Leafs are unlikely to land a top-five draft pick. If they pick anywhere beyond the fifth pick, that selection goes to the Boston Bruins as a result of last year’s Brandon Carlo trade. So, let’s throw the Leafs a bone and give them a stick tap for somehow extracting a first-round pick (albeit a very late one) from Colorado for an underperforming third-line center in Nic Roy. It’s a huge win for Toronto, which badly needed one.
The return for Bobby McMann (a second and a fourth) is a little underwhelming, but they had to get something for him, and they did. Good enough.
At some point, the Blackhawks will need to build more around Connor Bedard. For now, he’s getting used to seeing teammates shipped out of town. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Loser: Chicago Blackhawks
This is now nine consecutive seasons that the Blackhawks — once perennial buyers — have been on the selling side. GM Kyle Davidson did well to get a first-round pick out of his predecessor, Oilers GM Stan Bowman, by packaging Jason Dickinson (on an expiring contract) and Colton Dach (about to get squeezed out of the lineup by younger players with higher ceilings). Davidson also got decent value for Connor Murphy and earned brownie points with future free agents by doing right by Foligno, sending him to Minnesota to chase the Stanley Cup with his brother. But at some point, don’t the Blackhawks have to start adding to Connor Bedard, not just continue to take from him? Those brownie points don’t mean much if you never bring anybody of consequence in.
There was a 26-year-old top-line forward on the market in Thomas, the pass-first, high-end playmaker Bedard desperately needs. And Chicago has everything St. Louis would want in that trade — an extra first-round pick this year, a slew of good young NHL talents, and a bevy of good prospects. But Davidson, whose very long-term plan has the full faith of ownership and whose job security might be unmatched in the league despite all the losing, sat out the Thomas sweepstakes.
No team has ever successfully built solely through the draft. Every team overvalues its own young players, but at some point, you have to turn picks and prospects and players into assets. A 26-year-old established star in the hand has got to be worth two or three promising lottery tickets in the bush.
Winner: Second-tier teams
It was a pretty quiet deadline for the very best teams, with Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and Carolina all making depth additions. Much of the bigger-name action was concentrated on the new blood trying to break into that group.
The Islanders adding Brayden Schenn, the Mammoth picking up MacKenzie Weegar, the Blue Jackets taking on Conor Garland, the Kraken adding Bobby McMann, the Senators acquiring Warren Foegele and the Red Wings trading for Faulk were all intriguing moves by intriguing teams. The East, in particular, feels wide open, and these players could prove to be difference-makers in the playoffs.
Loser: The goalie market
Conventional wisdom says that it’s far more difficult for goaltenders to adapt to a new team in a hurry than it is for forwards and defensemen. And that’s fair. But Sergei Bobrovsky, coming off two straight Stanley Cup runs, was available. So was Jordan Binnington, a proven big-game goalie (albeit one who’s having a truly awful regular season). Perhaps most interestingly, Minnesota’s 23-year-old stud-to-be Jesper Wallstedt was being dangled. None of them moved.
Oh, well. It’s not like goaltending matters much in the playoffs, right?
