East loaded, GM beef

After all the speculation and rumors, the 2022 NHL trade deadline is now in the rearview mirror. Now, instead of talking about rumors and potential player landing spots, we can do the following fun thing: analyze the winners and losers in all the roster changes over the past couple of weeks.

Here Adam Gretz and Sean Leahy will tell you about their winners and losers.

Winner: Colorado Avalanche. The rich get richer. The Avalanche already had one of the best and strongest teams in the league, and over the last couple of weeks, they’ve only increased that with Josh Manson, Arturi Lehkonen and Andrew Cogliano. All three players bolster the team’s defence, with Lehkonen also able to contribute offensively in the newly formed third line with Alexander Newhook. -Adam Gretz

Winner: Ron Francis. Kraken are not making the playoffs this year, so the future was in the spotlight at this trade deadline. Francis got rid of Marcus Johansson, Mason Appleton, Jeremy Lauzon, Mark Giordano, Kalle Jarnkrok.

After all the moves the Seattle CEO has made this season, the Kraken now have nine picks in the first four rounds of the 2022 and 2023 NHL Draft. That includes four seconds and three quarters this season and three seconds and two thirds in 2023. Importantly, $8.5 million in the ceiling was discovered. -Sean Leahy

Winner: Marc-Andre Fleury and Minnesota Wild. Fleury is back in the playoffs for a pretty good team as the Wild tackle an issue that was starting to cause concern – Adam Graetz

[Related: With Fleury trade Wild boldly aim to fix biggest weakness]

Loser: Trying to put players through failures. Harry Seteri signed with the Maple Leafs but would eventually move to the Coyotes. As Petr Mrzek struggles and Jack Campbell misses some more, Toronto General Manager Kyle Dubas decided to improve his goalkeeping power by bringing in a Finnish goalkeeper who most recently won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

But with Seteri playing in Europe this season for KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk, he had to go through waivers before fully joining the Maple Leafs. Well, with Scott Wedgwood heading to Dallas, Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong needed an understudy for newly signed Karel Weimelka.

Seteri’s contract is for just one year, with a ceiling of $750,000. -Sean Leahy

Loser: Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender For the reason stated above and because they still have some serious questions. It is better to hope that Jack Campbell will return soon and will play the same as in the first part of the season. -Adam Gretz

Loser: Hoping for unexpected blockbuster deals. Also, even some expected transactions do not occur. Vancouver didn’t trade Brock Bozer, Conor Garland or JT Miller. Detroit did not sell Tyler Bertuzzi. Arizona did not trade Jacob Chichran or Phil Kessel. No PK Subban swap, Thomas Hurtle re-signed and Philip Forsberg stayed in Nashville. We shouldn’t be surprised because that’s the nature of trading deadlines lately, but the rumor is that most trades never happen. Or close to happening. -Adam Gretz

Winner: Claude Giroud. Yes, it’s disgusting for a team to have to trade one of its franchise icons like the Philadelphia Flyers did to Giroud, but now Giroud can walk away from a team that’s been mired in mediocrity for the past ten years to go to the Florida Panthers for a chance to win the Cup. Stanley. Now he has the right hockey to play for one of the best teams in the league, and he has a good chance of vying for the championship. -Adam Gretz

Loser: Florida defense. The conventional wisdom is to make Florida the big winners by the trade deadline because they have added a lot, but I’m going to play the other way around here and say I don’t like what they did for their defense. They paid an extremely high price for Ben Chiarot and added Buffalo’s Robert Hugg while Aaron Ekblad will be left out for the foreseeable future. Are Chiarot and Hagg updates? They don’t quite match Florida’s style of play and they just seem like moves that would slow them down rather than help propel them to the top. -Adam Gretz

Winner: Jake DeBrusca fans. His new two-year, $8 million extension means any team that tries to trade him will have some confidence in future costs. DeBrusque has not retracted his trade request and has been productive ever since word got out that he wants out of Boston. -Sean Leahy

Winner: Ron Hextall. Hextall wanted to increase the Pittsburgh Penguins’ roster scoring and didn’t want to trade his first-round draft pick. He achieved both goals by acquiring Rickard Rackell from the Anaheim Ducks over Zach Aston-Reese, Dominic Simon, Kalle Klang and selecting him in the second round of the 2022 draft. Rakell should upgrade their second line while they still have enough depth to be able to trade Aston-Reese and Simon. -Adam Gretz

[Related: Trade: Penguins get Rakell, add some scoring depth]

Indifferent Feeling: Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders. If they were active, the islanders would be sellers. But the goods they had to offer were not very attractive. Zdeno Chara (45)? Andy Green (39)? Zach Parise (8 goals, 24 points)? Cal Clutterbuck (6 goals, 15 points)?

Parise (1 year) and Clutterbuck (2 years) now have extensions. General manager Lou Lamoriello wants to improve his team through “hockey trades,” as he put it this afternoon.

The only real asset they had was goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov, but he has a 16-team no-trade clause that could really hinder the search for a move. After two strong playoff hits and some small upgrades, the Islanders need a roster refresh this summer. -Sean Leahy

Winner: Depth Rangers. The Rangers were in a position to be big buyers by the trade deadline given their salary cap space, and while they didn’t swing over the fence or hit a clear home run, they did make a couple of really smart moves in Andrew Kopp, Tyler. Motte and Justin Brown to add some much needed depth to their lineup. They still may not be on the same level as some of the other top contenders and their success will likely depend a lot on their roll, but they have really improved. -Adam Gretz

[Related: Copp, Braun make Rangers more balanced]

Winner: Kyle Davidson. His hands were slightly tied when he tried to negotiate with Marc-Andre Fleury. The goalkeeper will have to approve any trade after their agreement last summer. Few Stanley Cup contenders needed a grid upgrade, but the Wild wanted Fleury and they got it. Bill Guerin set his sights on Fleury two years ago and managed to negotiate a win-win decision for the Blackhawks and the Wild to send the goaltender to Minnesota. Now with Chicago having no first round pick in 2022, they could have a second first round pick in either 2023 or 2024, depending on how certain trade conditions stack up.

Davidson has already stated that the franchise will be rebuilt, so that could mean Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and possibly others will leave this summer. It would only add assets that could be used to change the franchise. -Sean Leahy

Losers: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Just because it’s another season where the front office just doesn’t want or can’t do anything meaningful around them. Brett Fist is a great pickup truck from Montreal, but is he really moving forward much compared to the other top contenders for the Stanley Cup? No. It’s still an extremely top team with no goalkeepers, questionable depth or defensive issues. -Adam Gretz

Winner: General manager of beef. Kyle Dubas didn’t like the leaked rumors about his attempt to acquire Marc-Andre Fleury and Brandon Hagel and blame Kyle Davidson in Chicago. Kyle Davidson joked back that he would deal with this alone with Dubas. This is the best argument with the general manager since Bryan Burke and Kevin Lowe were going to fight in the barn. -Adam Gretz

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