Fairly busy day even for the NHL trade deadline. 27 trades today in total and I can't say I see to much in the way of in the way of losers though there are couple I just had to do a double take on. Top deals of the day, IMO, break down like this:
1) Pittsburgh acquired Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues in exchange for Dominik Kahun. Separately Patrick Marleau was obtained for a 3rd round pick. The Pens are in win now mode and on top of the Zucker trade their top 3 lines should be fairly potent. Marleau I think is going to be more of a drag on the Pens then he will be helpful, but if he's playing limited time on the 4th line and some 2nd line PP time it may shield him from costing the Pens a win or two.
2) Robin Lehner to the Golden Knights in a 3 way trade facilitated with the Maple Leafs. Fluery is obviously still the number 1 and Subban couldn't be counted on as a back up. If Fluery needs a rest of find himself in the training room Lehner should be able to pick up the slack. There really much the Knights had to do and they didn't overpay for his services.
3) In separate trades the Hurricanes obtained Vincent Trocheck, Brady Skjei, and Sami Vatanen. The Trocheck trade is somewhat of a head scratcher. While Trocheck has been trending downward since his return of injury last year his performance hasn't been horrendous. Compounded with the fact that Florida's return could be considered questionable with a 3rd liner in Lucas Wallmark, Erik Huala, and a couple prospects this could be one of the worst decisions the franchise has made. Oh and Florida is direct combination with Carolina for a Wild Card spot makes this sort of a head scratcher. I'd have ranked their day a greater success if they obtained a goalie, which is what they needed most right now and didn't manage to trade for one.
4) The Edmonton Oilers actually had a decent deadline. They picked up Mike Green to make a token effort to bolster their blue line offense and they also obtained Athanasiou in a separate trade with the Red Wings. The Wings absolutely sold low on Athanasiou, but shed salary and netted a couple 2nd rounders and Sam Gagner to be a warm body. Red Wings needed more cap space and more picks and received both. Whether this was a good trade won't be known for at least 3 year.
5) Colorado obtained Vladislav Namestnikov for a 4th rounder to the Sens in 2021. Despite the injuries the Av's made a shrewd trade and didn't bust bank on higher profile offense talent. They could have really used another goal tender to back up Francouz and Hutchinson isn't the answer.
Honorable mention: JG Pageau to the Islanders for a 1st 2020, 2nd 2020 , and 3rd 2022. I'm fairly certain the Islander's overpaid in all aspects of this trade and extension. None the less, it kept Pageau off a team that would have a better shot at actually playing for the Cup.
Sneaky good pick up: Nick Ritchie for Danton Heinen. It could very well end up a move that ends up saving some salary, but I think Ritchie is going to be a solid contributor with the Bruins. Developed talent isn't something that the Ducks had in abundance. With the Bruins he isn't going to be expected to play a top 6 and could easily get some decent match ups playing on the 3rd line or occasional second line duty. He has 8 goals now and I'd be willing to bet he scores another 6 by the end of the regular season.
