The reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights are gearing up for another run.
The Golden Knights, who acquired top-pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Anthony Mantha leading up to Friday’s trade deadline, took their chase to a new level by landing scoring forward Tomas Hertl from the San Jose Sharks.
Vegas dealt away a first-round pick and its top prospect, 2023 first-round pick David Edstrom, in a deal finished just in time for the deadline.
Hertl, a 30-goal scorer two years ago, had 15 goals and 19 assists in 48 games before suffering a knee injury. Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon told reporters the team “anticipates” Hertl will return before the end of the regular season.
“We wanted to help our team,” McCrimmon said. “Our recent play hasn’t been good enough. We know that. We’ll fix that.”
As the Golden Knights currently sit fourth in the Pacific Division, they’re looking for any help they can get for a late push toward the spring.
With the litany of trades that took place leading up to Friday afternoon, a slower day was expected, but the deadline delivered quite a few bombs.
Among them: The Winnipeg Jets, who last month acquired center Sean Monahan, added forward Tyler Toffoli and defenseman Colin Miller from the New Jersey Devils.
“We’re going to another Canadian city. There’s nothing better than playing in a Canadian market,” Toffoli, who has played for Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary, told reporters. “It’s a weird feeling, but at the same time, we’re excited. Winnipeg, the fans are very passionate. I’m excited to go there and keep pushing for the playoffs and try and make a run there.”
They were not the only contenders to load up:
–The league-leading Florida Panthers acquired Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo after acquiring veteran forward Vladimir Tarasenko from the Ottawa Senators earlier in the week.
–Three-time Stanley Cup champion Pat Maroon was dealt from the Minnesota Wild to the Boston Bruins, as was forward Andrew Peeke from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
–The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forward Evgeny Kuznetsov from the Washington Capitals for a third-round draft pick, after getting winger Jake Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
–The New York Rangers nabbed defenseman Chad Ruhwedel from the Penguins, as well as forwards Jack Roslovic (Blue Jackets) and Alex Wennberg (Seattle Kraken).
–Defenseman Matt Dumba was acquired by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who also added forward Anthony Duclair the night before.
Though New Jersey has slipped out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, one theme of this season’s trade rumors was how the Devils might address their goaltending problems.
A final play for the Calgary Flames’ Jacob Markstrom never materialized, so New Jersey acquired Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens, then swapped their former No. 1 goalie Vitek Vanecek for San Jose Sharks netminder Kaapo Kahkonen.
The Nashville Predators, who had brought in forward Anthony Beauvillier a few days ago, added forward Jason Zucker, and capped it with another winger in Wade Allison from the Philadelphia Flyers. Speaking of the Flyers, they nabbed forward Denis Gurianov and defenseman Erik Johnson.
A litany of deals were consummated in the days leading up to the deadline. Among them were transactions that sent Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick and Troy Stecher to the Edmonton Oilers; Sean Walker, Casey Mittlestadt, Brandon Duhaime, Yakov Trenin to the Colorado Avalanche; and Bowen Byram to the Buffalo Sabres.
Then there were the handful of teams that made almost no noise.
The Vancouver Canucks were surprisingly quiet in their attempt to land another scoring forward, while the Los Angeles Kings were unable to improve their goaltending. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Blues were expected to move out players such as Pavel Buchnevich, but did not. Neither the New York Islanders or Detroit Red Wings made acquisitions to improve their playoff hopes.
–Field Level Media