NHL Trade Deadline Winners and Losers
Loser: Teams in Purgatory
The Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames had decisions to make regarding their respective playoff pushes and trying to plan for the future.
Calgary holds the final Pacific Division spot by virtue of a tiebreaker with the L.A. Kings. What we all know is that the Kings are gearing up for the playoffs much in the way that they have during their string of recent success. Calgary did the smart thing by trading Curtis Glencross, knowing that he would not be able to be re-signed in the offseason. The loss of Mark Giordano to a season-ending injury put an added emphasis on defensive help before the severity of the injury was learned. Their response was claiming David Schlemko off of waivers. The run in Calgary was fun while it lasted.
The Flyers got a better return for a 40-year-old defenseman in Kimmo Timonen than the Edmonton Oilers got for 27-year-old blue-liner Jeff Petry. Edmonton received the same second-round pick that the Flyers did, but couldn't lock in the fourth-round pick that Philly did, settling for a conditional fifth-rounder in 2015. That’s a win, but they lost by adding a penalty-taking machine in Radko Gudas and by being attached to Slava Voynov in trade rumors.
If the 2015 first-round pick that Philly acquired turns into a good prospect, then the deal may be deemed okay, especially with the talent in this year’s draft. The problem with that is the length of time it will take to judge whomever is picked. Gudas has been on the ice for 45.7% of the Lightning’s goal and is seeing his plus/minus being salvaged by his goaltenders’ 92% save percentage when he is on the ice. Gudas saw the second most starts in the offensive zone while in Tampa, as well.
The Ottawa Senators earned points in eight of their last 10 games heading into Monday’s deadline (7-2-1) and squeaked their way within earshot of a wild card position. They were rumored to be shopping a number of players, but nothing sparked general manager Bryan Murray’s interest enough to pull the trigger. The Sens made zero moves to help shed salary and essentially the dead weight on the roster.
