As another NHL season slowly comes to an end and the playoffs are rapidly approaching, a lot of teams have to decide if they’re going to be a “buyer” or a “seller” at the trade deadline.

For some, many general mangers are looking to add depth and skill to their rosters in hopes of making a deep playoff run in search for the Stanley Cup.

This year, the trade deadline was February 24^th at 3:00 p.m. For some teams, they filled some missing spots within their roster while others sold pieces for prospects and or draft picks. Now, lets take a look at some of the “winners” and losers” from the trade dead line this year.

One of the most active teams this trade deadline was by far the Carolina Hurricanes. Due to unexpected injuries, they had to make more trades than they originally anticipated.

Due to any already stacked Metropolitan Division, the Hurricanes are still in the race of making it into the playoffs as a wild card team. The first trade they made was for top-six forward Vincent Trocheck from the Florida Panthers.

Now, this trade came as a shock to almost everyone in the hockey community. Trocheck is an extremely talented forward with NHL and playoff experience. So far with Florida this season he’s posted 36 points in 55 games and has a cap hit of $4.75 million and is under contract for the next two seasons.

All around, this is a great trade for the Canes as they add depth and strengthen their center core heading into the playoffs. Carolina also proceeded to add two new defenseman to the roster with that being Sami Vatanen from New Jersey and Brady Skjei from the New York Rangers. These two transactions are huge for the Canes due to the loss of defenseman Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce from injury. Carolina now has  a complete roster from top to bottom as they look to win their first Stanley Cup since 2006.

Another team that improved drastically at hopes of making a deep playoff push was the Pittsburg Penguins. A few weeks prior to the dead line the Penguins acquired skilled forward Jason Zucker from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Alex Galchenyuk, a conditional first round draft pick, and defensive prospect Calen Addison.

The Pens were in search for Zucker dating all the way back to the summer of 2019 in hopes of acquiring him for forward Phil Kessel. That deal was later rejected by Kessel himself with his no trade clause incorporated into his contract.

This trade was extremely crucial to the Pens after most likely losing Jake Guentzel for the rest of the regular season after undergoing shoulder surgery in late December. On trade day the Penguins also picked up veteran forward Patrick Marleau from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a conditional third round draft pick.

Marleau is currently playing in his 20^th season in the NHL and at the age of 40 is still seeking his first Stanley Cup. Marleau will serve as a depth player for the Pens and as a role model to the younger players on the team. Finally, the Penguins traded for forwards Connor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for forward Dominik Kahun.

Sheary has been with Buffalo for the past two seasons now after being traded by the Pens after winning two Stanley Cups with the franchise (2016 and 2017). Sheary looks to rejoin captain Sidney Crosby on the first line as they had tremendous chemistry back when Sheary was originally on the team. Rodrigues will serve as a bottom six forward and penalty killer with the club as the Penguins attempt to pursue their sixth Stanley Cup in franchise history.

One of the most shocking teams in terms of activity at the trade deadline was the Colorado Avalanche. The only move the team made was trading for depth forward Vlad Namestnikov from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a fourth round draft pick.

The Aves were expected to make some deals at the deadline due to all of the injuries the team currently has. It was said that the team was having strong trade discussion with  New York Ranger for forward Chris Kreider. Surprisingly, Kreider ended up signing a contract extension with the Rangers for 7 year, $45.5 million contract extension.

The Avalanche also look to make a deep playoff run with one of the best first lines in hockey with that being Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen. The Avalanche are in search for their first Stanley Cup since 2001.

There were also several teams who were “sellers” at the deadline by acquiring high draft picks and freeing up cap space at the same time. Two of the most notable teams are the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings. As of now, the Devils currently have three first round draft picks in this upcoming draft.

The Devils traded players like Andy Greene, Sami Vatanen, Wayne Simmonds, Blake Coleman, and Taylor Hall. It is no surprise that the Devils had extremely different plans coming into this year with the roster that they had. Unfortunately enough, things didn’t go as planned as they are one of the worst teams in the whole league.

On the bright side, they still have young players like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Nikita Gusev, and Jesper Bratt that will only get better as time goes on and have a those three first round draft picks to look forward to as well as the chance to make some good free agent signings in the offseason with all of this new found cap space.

The Detroit Red Wings are in a very similar spot right now as the Devils are but the only difference was that they were expected to be a poor team this year. Detroit has been one of the worst teams statistically wise in the NHL for the last twenty years.

The Red Wings also freed up cap space and acquired high draft picks by trading players like Andreas Anthanasiou and veteran defenseman Mike Green. The Red Wings are in hopes of winning the draft lottery and picking highly scouted and talented prospect Alexis Lafreneire.

Up until 2016, the Red Wings had an NHL record of making it to the postseason for 25 consecutive seasons. Detroit is in hopes of making the playoffs in 2021 with players like Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Anthony Mantha leading the way offensively for the club.

As you can see, the NHL is full of sunrises and upsets. General managers take high risks in hopes of making the playoffs and winning the Stanley Cup for their respected team. Sometimes these “block-buster” trades don’t always pay off and become a failure for them in the long run.

It is always fun to see these talented players who were on bad, underperforming teams and see them thrive and flourish with highly skilled and talented contenders.

So who knows, maybe a team like the St. Louis Blues wins the Cup for the second straight year by not making any significant moves at the deadline or maybe a team like the New York Islanders manage to shock everyone by acquiring J.G. Pageau. As they say, only time will tell.