NHL Trade Deadline Recap - 2022

Now that the dust has settled on the NHL’s trade deadline (sort of), I wanted to go over some of the trades that I believe will make the biggest difference for the teams involved. These are the trades where a team either gained a significant contributor for their future or who made serious commitments by trading away good young prospects or draft picks, selling their future for more immediate success.

Typically, the best teams use the Trade Deadline to load up on a few solid players to fill out the middle and bottom of their lineup and not a ton of big names are dealt. The league’s bottom feeders usually use the deadline to trade away their best players who they know will not want to return for another year with the somewhat defeated mantra of “well, at least we got something for him”. Most players moved in trades around the deadline are players whose contract expires after the end of the season.

Now, with all that hockey trade jargon out of the way, let’s get started with some trades. I have separated them into a few different categories to make my life a little bit easier:

That’s a Steal!

(Marc-Andre Fleury is the NHL's biggest "Nice Guy" so it will be easy to root for him on the Wild)

Minnesota Wild Acquire:

Marc-Andre Fleury - G

Chicago Blackhawks Acquire:

Conditional 1st round pick

The Wild have been excellent this season but have had some goaltending struggles over the last month or so that leave them vulnerable as the playoffs grow near. What better way to solve goaltending issues than to trade for the reigning Vezina trophy winner who is also a 3-time Stanley Cup champion?

Fleury has had a rollercoaster of a year since being traded to Chicago by the Vegas Golden Knights and hasn’t quite looked like himself. However, a lot of that can be attributed to the weak defense that he played in front of in Chicago, which will not be an issue anymore as the Wild are an excellent team defensively.

All that the Wild had to pay was a conditional 1st round pick which is a steal. The condition is that if the Wild make it to at least the 3rd round of the playoffs and Fleury wins at least 4 of the games required to get them there, then the pick is a 1st rounder in 2022. If those conditions aren’t met, then the pick is just a 2nd rounder in 2022. So, either a team starved for playoff success wins a bunch and has to pay up for it, or they lose and have minor consequences. That’s a steal.

(Since being drafted 30th overall in 2011, Rakell has been a leader on and off the ice for the Ducks)

Pittsburgh Penguins Acquire:

Rickard Rakell – F

Anaheim Ducks Acquire:

Dominik Simon – F

Zach Aston-Reese – F

Calle Clang – G

2nd Round pick in 2022

The Penguins certainly gave up a good number of assets to receive Rakell from the Ducks, but none of them were premium assets like a 1st round pick or a top prospect so this is a win overall. With how high the market price seemed to be at this deadline for players of Rakell’s caliber, it seemed impossible that anyone would pry him from Anaheim without a 1st round pick.

Rakell has had a bit of a down year on a rebuilding Ducks squad but should be a great fit on the Penguins’ second line alongside Evgeni Malkin as the Penguins load up for another chance at the Stanley Cup.

Wait . . . what?

(Hamonic had a rough go with the Canucks, scoring 17 points in 62 games across 2 seasons)

Vancouver Canucks Acquire:

3rd round pick in 2022

Ottawa Senators Acquire:

Travis Hamonic – D

This was probably the most surprising and confusing trade of the season as the Senators added Travis Hamonic to their defense for a fairly high price. Hamonic wasn’t exactly a highly thought of player by teammates, management or fans in Vancouver, so getting out from under his $3M/year contract for this year and next was a great move even before considering the 3rd round pick they gained.

NHL Insider Frank Seravalli reported that within the first few hours after this trade, multiple Canucks players contacted him to say how relieved they were he was gone, signalling personality issues that the Canucks are likely glad to have behind them. Seravalli also revealed that this was not the kind of situation where a bunch of teams were looking at Hamonic, starting a bidding war that drove up the price. The Senators were the one and only team interested and they still got fleeced.

(Jeremy Lauzon was one of many players traded away by the Kraken in return for draft picks)

Seattle Kraken Acquire:

2nd round pick in 2022

Nashville Predators Acquire:

Jeremy Lauzon – D

Lauzon showed some promise in his first full-time NHL stint last season with the Boston Bruins but has struggled this year after being selected by Seattle in their Expansion Draft. Trading away an underwhelming player for a second-round pick was a huge victory for the Kraken but left a ton of hockey fans wondering why in the world the Predators paid as much as they did.

OGWAC (Old Guy Without a Cup)

(Claude Giroux has been one of the NHL's most under appreciated players for about a decade)

Florida Panthers Acquire:

Claude Giroux (Flyers retain 50% of salary) – F

Connor Bunnaman

German Rubtsov

5th round pick in 2024

Philadelphia Flyers Acquire:

Owen Tippet – F

1st round pick in 2024

3rd round pick in 2023

This trade is a huge win for the Panthers as they added the best player available at the deadline in Claude Giroux. It is common to see teams part with franchise main-stay type players at the trade deadline to help them pursue the Stanley Cup and this trade was an excellent example of that. Sean McIndoe (writer for The Athletic) coined the term OGWAC (Old Guy Without A Cup) for the older players in the NHL who you most want to see win the Stanley Cup. Claude Giroux is certainly high up on that list for me.

Giroux played exactly 1,000 games for the Philadelphia Flyers, scoring exactly 900 points. He has been their best player, and captain, for the last decade and it will be sad for Flyers fans to see him go. However, the Flyers have been terrible this year and are heading for a full rebuild and with Giroux’s current contract expiring after this season, it made no sense for him to re-sign. The Flyers recognized that and decided to trade him for whatever they could get in return.

The Panthers were already one of the most dominant teams in the NHL, but after adding Giroux, they look poised to cause some serious damage in the post-season.

(Giordano went from being the captain of the Flames to the captain of the Kraken this year)

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire:

Mark Giordano – D

Colin Blackwell - F

Seattle Kraken Acquire:

2nd Round Pick in 2022

2nd Round Pick in 2023

3rd Round Pick in 2024

Giordano is the perfect OGWAC player. An older player with tons of NHL experience who is well respected around the league and is being traded to his hometown team. What more could you ask for when looking for someone to root for? Aside from his OGWAC candidacy, Giordano is still a really solid defenseman and should play a large role in Toronto.

After many excellent seasons in Calgary, Giordano was selected in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft last summer and was immediately named the captain. His work ethic, leadership and consistent play have led to him captaining two separate NHL teams, but now he’s on the hunt for a Stanley Cup win with the Leafs. Hope it goes well for him.

Sell the Farm!!!

(Hagel scored an impressive 21 goals in 55 games for a disappointing Blackhawks team this year)

Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire:

Brandon Hagel – F

4th round pick in 2022

4th round pick in 2024

Chicago Blackhawks Acquire:

1st Round pick in 2023

1st Round pick in 2024

Boris Katchouk – F

Taylor Raddysh – F

This trade is the perfect example of the “Sell the Farm!” type of trade, as the Tampa Bay Lightning traded their two best young prospects as well as two future 1st round picks for only one player. They clearly believe that their time is now and who can blame them? They have won back-to-back Stanley Cups and are looking to make that 3 in a row this year.

Hagel has been underappreciated this year on a bad Chicago team, but Tampa Bay made sure to nab him before any other team had the chance. He is signed to a contract that will earn him $1.5M/year for the next two years after this one, giving him three playoff runs with the Lightning. Hagel is in the midst of a breakout season, so his contract is just the kind of bargain that contending teams need to find.

However, Chicago clearly knew how valuable Hagel’s contract is and they got a whole lot in return for him. This is an almost unheard-of trade where a team gives up multiple first round picks for one player, so the Lightning better hope that it pays off. Whether it does or not, the Lightning will not be selecting in the 1st round of the NHL draft until 2025, so they will begin to run out of young prospects very soon.

(after months of jokes, people were surprised to see Chiarot actually get traded for a 1st round pick)

Florida Panthers Acquire:

Ben Chiarot – D

Montréal Canadiens Acquire:

Tyler Smilanic

1st round pick in 2022

4th round pick in 2024

The Panthers are making the risky bet here that they are getting “2021 playoffs Ben Chiarot” and not “2022 Ben Chiarot”. After a solid playoff run last year, it became a bit of a meme in the hockey world that the Canadiens were going to sell him at the trade deadline for a massive return. The joke became more popular as the Canadiens started the season off horribly and Chiarot’s play followed that trend.

He has been . . . not very good so far this season, but part of that is due to the greatly increased workload he has been forced to undertake while Shea Weber is out due to injury/surgery. Instead of playing on the second defensive pairing where he likely belongs, he was forced into top pairing minutes and failed pretty miserably. With Florida, Chiarot will likely be their 4th or 5th defender and will have a lot less responsibility.

For the Panthers’ sake, it better work out because a 1st round pick is nothing to scoff at and could have turned into a very valuable asset for them, especially in comparison to Chiarot.

That’s it?

(Tyler Motte was a fan favourite in Vancouver and will likely be the same in New York)

New York Rangers Acquire:

Tyler Motte – F

Vancouver Canucks Acquire:

4th round pick in 2023

One of the more underwhelming trades of this year’s deadline occurred when the Canucks traded away fan favourite Tyler Motte to the Rangers for a 4th round pick. Vancouver doesn’t have a ton of players on expiring contracts so it was expected that they would get a great return for the ones they did have. Couple that with the expectations set out by the massive success of the Travis Hamonic trade and fans were prepared to be blown away by the return for Motte. A 4th round pick is pretty minimal but was actually pretty well in-line with the value of other depth players who were traded at the deadline for 4th round picks.

Motte is a hardworking 3rd or 4th line player who excels on the penalty kill so only having to pay a 4th round pick for him is a solid deal for the Rangers. He also has proven himself to be an excellent playoff performer (just check out his 4 goals against the Blues in 2020) so he could be an important piece in the Rangers’ playoff run this year.

The Strangest of All

(Dadonov was acquired in the off-season in a trade with the Ottawa Senators)

Anaheim Ducks Acquire:

Evgeni Dadonov – F

2nd round pick in 2023

Vegas Golden Knights Acquire:

John Moore – D

Contract of Ryan Kesler (Retired due to Injury)

This trade was one of the most surprising of the deadline as the Golden Knights trade away a decent player and a second-round pick to the Ducks for the $6M contract of Kesler and the $2.75M/year contract of Moore who would not be expected to play a big part of the team’s success.

So why did the Golden Knights give up the best player in the trade and a 2nd round pick for two bad contracts? Because they could bury Moore’s contract in the AHL, and they could use Kesler’s $6M to extend their LTIR (Long Term Injury Reserve) space and hopefully re-activate one of their good players who are currently on LTIR. There is a lot of salary cap manipulation going on here, but basically, they are hoping this trade allows them to bring back some of their best players without going over the NHL’s salary cap. They are doing this because their multitude of injuries have led to them falling all the way out of the playoffs and they are now facing a serious uphill battle to make it in.

I haven’t even gotten to the weird part yet.

Shortly after the trade was made official, there were reports that the trade was being disputed by Dadonov who claimed that he had a 10-team No Trade Clause built into his contract which allowed him to list 10 teams he could not be traded to, Anaheim being one of them. Dadonov is required to re-submit his list of 10 teams every season to ensure that his team knows where they could or couldn’t trade him.

The problem stems from Dadonov’s trade to the Vegas Golden Knights from the Ottawa Senators last off-season, just days after he submitted his no-trade list. The Senators received the list, but the Golden Knights are saying that they never received the list and, in fact, were not even aware that his contract had built-in trade protection! The whole situation is being investigated by the NHL Players Association to decide who is at fault and what will become of this trade.

At this point, Dadonov’s options are to accept the trade and go to a team he doesn’t want to play for or stay with the team that is so desperately trying to get rid of him that they didn’t even pay attention to his contract. Not an enviable position at all, but I hope that he can find his way to a team that will respect him enough to at least take more than a glance at his contract before trying to send him away.

This was a totally wild trade deadline that was/is much more memorable than many have been in recent years. Big names moved, General Managers made weird decisions, and the Dadonov/Vegas saga is still ongoing. Hopefully the rest of the season can match this level of drama and excitement. Now we wait and see whose trade deadline moves will truly pay off.

Which trade are you most excited about? Which player will be the weirdest to see in a new jersey and why is it Claude Giroux? Which trade do you think will backfire the most? Let me know in the comment section below.