Suffice it to say that while many things happened on Trade Deadline Day this year, no great thing came to pass.
The report card on the Canadian franchises’ performance in the trade crucible should be taken with a grain of salt. Grades have been assigned on a bell-curve basis—a B+ here would be a B most other years, but performances here are measured against the middling performance across the league.
Montreal Canadiens
Acquired: Jeff Petry from Edmonton for 2nd in 2015 and a conditional 5th in 2015; Brian Flynn from Buffalo for a 6th in 2016; Torrey Mitchell from Buffalo for futures (TBA)
A lot of names were floating out there in rumours but GM Marc Bergevin made subtle tweaks. In the biggest move, Bergevin added blueline depth with Petry, sacrificing only a pick likely in the 50s. I thought Petry would have commanded a value greater than that, but will he be more than a sixth or seventh D-man sans-injury elsewhere? Hard to say, though it’s worth noting that he was playing 20 minutes a night for the Oilers, ahead of more highly paid veteran talent. Expect the Edmonton bounce for Petry: an uptick in play with his ticket out of town.
Bergevin moved quickly on this on deadline day and didn’t allow for the market to heat up at all. It’s not clear to what degree the rumoured names—notably, Lars Eller—were really in play. The GM might have wanted to do more, looking for a piece for forward depth.
Grade: B
Winnipeg
Acquired: Lee Stempniak from NYR for Carl Klingberg
Stempniak is a bottom-six and probably a bottom-three forward, experience to draw from but not much else to offer. Still, Klingberg was mired in the AHL, so the move was at virtually no cost and no risk.
Let’s face it, though: What’s Jets GM Kevin Chevldayoff supposed to do for a second act? He made his splash three weeks back with the trade of Evander Kane and Zach Bogasian to Buffalo for veterans Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford, prospects Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux and a conditional first.
The Jets are 6-2-2 in their last 10 and are sitting in the first wild-card—precariously, but still, it’s a huge step for this franchise. There’s also much to like about a move that Chevaldayoff made on Sunday, landing Jiri Tlusty from Carolina for a third-rounder in 2016 and a conditional sixth in 2015. Tlusty isn’t a well-rounded player by any stretch—exactly what type of playoff performer he might be is a mystery—but he can be an asset on the second power play, a flyer worth taking.
Grade: A (taking into consideration the trade with Buffalo)
Calgary
Acquired: 2nd and 3rd in 2015 from Washington for Curtis Glencross (UFA); 2nd from Vancouver for Sven Baertschi
Glencross had been a stalwart 20-goal left winger in tough times for the Flames, but his game has shown significant slippage. His days as a top-six forward with the team are passed. He was making $2.55 million this season on a multi-year deal that had been tremendous value on its signing but a lot less so now. There was no shot that the Flames were re-signing him and it might be he would have been sour on the idea himself—some in management might have crowed too much about besting him on his last deal.
Bottom line: The Flames considered Glencross a replaceable player and wanted to give kids in the system a shot. The Caps overpaid in a big way—you wonder if Washington’s pro scouts were working from last year’s notes when they made their appraisals.
The Flames had high hopes for Baertschi, a skilled forward selected 13th overall in 2011. Scouts had him ranked as one of the five most skilled players in his draft class, and that seemed a conservative assessment when he scored three goals in a five-game emergency call-up near the end of the 2011–12 season. That, however, was as good as it got and he scored five more goals in 61 games across the three seasons.
Even if his performance spiked at this point there wouldn’t seem room or need for him in an organization that has Gaudreau and Bennett. Turning a former 13th-overall pick into a second-rounder might not seem ideal but with a bunch of seconds and thirds Calgary is positioned to move up into a pick in the low 30s if they identify a prospect that falls out of the first round.
Grade: B-
Toronto
Acquired: A 6th from St Louis for Olli Jokinen (the pick becomes a fourth on condition of the Blues making the final and Jokinen playing in it); Eric Brewer and a 5th from Anaheim for Korbinian Holzer
If you were told that one player in the Leafs dressing room was going to land somewhere else on deadline day, history would show that Jokinen would be your best bet—now with his tenth team. No Phaneuf to Detroit, no Bozak to the Rangers, no Lupul to [your name here].
GM Dave Nonis, who can get voted off the island anytime in Survivor: Bay Street, had done a lot in the weeks leading up to the deadline and came away with Nashville’s first-rounder in the trade for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli. He climbed Everest in short pants on a cold day when he unloaded David Clarkson to Columbus for Nathan Horton’s contract and cap space.
For Nonis, so much is still to do, but he can have only faint hope that he’ll be the one doing it.
Grade: B- (as a parting gift)
Vancouver
Acquired: Sven Baertschi from Calgary for a 2nd in 2015; Cory Conacher from the Islanders for Dustin Jeffrey
GM Jim Benning didn’t take a big swing to make a deep run in the playoffs. Just getting there is going to be a win. Baertschi is more about next season than immediate help—unless Benning sees something that everyone else has missed. Conacher meanwhile is a bottom-six forward who comes at no cost.
It’s easy to like the earlier deal he made picking up Adam Clendening from Chicago for Gustav Forsling—two defencemen fairly comparable in talent and upside, but the NHL-ready Clendening was caught in a logjam with the Blackhawks while Forsling is a few years away. Clendening is already contributing to a Canucks team that looks to be in good shape for a post-season berth. I’m sure that Canucks fans were hoping for more but Benning is probably looking for big wins out of small plays, like Clendening.
Grade: B-
Edmonton
Acquired: 2nd in 2015 and a conditional 5th in 2015 for Jeff Petry
As mentioned, the Canadiens moved early and the Oilers didn’t get market value for a 20-minute-a-night defenceman. When was the last time Edmonton won one of these trades?
Grade: D
Ottawa
Acquired: N/A
They say that the best trades are often the ones you don’t make. The Senators didn’t make a slew of them on deadline, so at least some of them were good or at least better than the Oilers’ C- (marks given for attendance).
Grade: Inc.