15 trades highlight low-key NHL trade deadline

Rick Nash? Still a Columbus Blue Jacket.
Bryan Allen & Jaroslav Spacek? Still Carolina Hurricanes.
Derek Roy? Still a Buffalo Sabre.
P.A. Parenteau? Still a New York Islander.

See a pattern here?

The inactivity wasn’t a real surprise as we’ve seen a massive case of parity this year in the league. You could argue that there are still 11 teams in the West in contention while the East has 10. And when 21 out of 30 franchises believe they can make a run at the Stanley Cup, the number of deadline handshakes decrease. Those who were poised to sell didn’t necessarily sell either. A few days before the deadline, we saw Edmonton Oilers reach a contract extension with Ales Hemsky while the Carolina Hurricanes reached an extension with Tuomo Ruutu. Hemsky and Ruutu were being penned as the top prizes in the weeks leading into the deadline. Overall there were 15 trades today as most of them were for role players or minor league depth. A total of seven teams were the foundation for these trades. Leading the league were the Vancouver Canucks and the Tampa Bay Lightning who participated in 3 trades each.

Vancouver Canucks – 3
Tampa Bay Lightning – 3
Anaheim Ducks – 2
Nashville Predators – 2
Chicago Blackhawks – 2
Minnesota Wild – 2
Toronto Maple Leafs – 2

For the full list of today’s trades, see the chart after the jump…

Ask any analyst and they’ll likely tell you that the early winners at the deadline were the Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks. Both of the Western Conference teams added key pieces to their puzzles that will immediately make each team better. A combination of Andre Kostitsyn and Paul Gaustad could help the Preds move past the second round while Zack Kassian and Sami Pahlsson could be the final pieces to help the Canucks lift the Stanley Cup.

On the other side of the spectrum, there were a few early losers. It would seem quite baffling as to why the Washington Capitals decided to sit on their hands with most of the Southeast division in a mad dash for the 8th spot in the East. The Calgary Flames are another team on the confusion radar. Apart from the stellar play of Mikka Kiprusoff, this team is not built for a deep Stanley Cup run. It would’ve been in their best interests to become a seller and restock their farm system with prospects and/or draft picks.

Be sure to visit back soon as Puck Drunk Love will have a full list of winners and losers regarding all the trades that happened in the past few weeks.

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