The National Hockey League trade deadline was Monday, and if not for Ottawa and Columbus, it might have passed with only the most diehard hockey fans noticing.
But thanks to the Senators blowing out their top three scorers, all of whom seemed to have little interest in resigning with the team, and the Blue Jackets loading up for a real playoff run, the week leading up to, and the deadline were rather interesting to follow.
Starting with the dumpster fire that is the Ottawa Senators, the general manager was once again painted into an untenable position.
Going back at least to Erik Karlsson, and now through the trio of Mark Stone, Ryan Dzingel and Matt Duchene, players seem all too eager to escape the Senators.
It is difficult to build a winner when players in their prime continually opt to head to free agency forcing you to trade them away. Karlsson, Stone, Dzingel and Duchene were all in that 26-28 age range when traded out of Ottawa.
The Senators have picked up some interesting pieces in Anthony Duclair, something of a young reclamation project, and highly touted prospect Erik Brannstrom, but this is a team very much in the early phase of a rebuild.
With Ottawa struggling to resign its own free agents, it’s difficult to imagine they will find success in luring other top players into the fold, so the rebuild will be a slow one, and whether they can keep fans engaged will be the real question.
And Columbus after all the deals has to win, and win now, for next season could be too late.
For Dzingel Columbus gave up second round choices in both 2020 and 2021, and Duchene cost the Blue Jacket’s their first round pick in June, and potentially their first round choice in 2020, (likely passed on whether Duchene resigns to stay in Columbus).
Columbus then sent a fourth and seventh round draft pick for 2019 to the New York Rangers for defenceman Adam McQuaid, and a fifth rounder in 2022 went to New Jersey for goaltender Keith Kincaid.
For the Blue Jackets who have never won a playoff round, the moves are bold. They have a sense of urgency to them, and they are making a run at a Stanley Cup. The issue is whether a team adding so many key pieces can jell and suddenly win even three rounds to get to the Cup final?
If they fall short Columbus has to sign some of the unrestricted free agents it has acquired, or those that were already on the roster, because if they leave now, the cupboard would be very bare, and upcoming drafts are impacted as well.
Disappointingly Calgary did not get a top defenceman I was hoping they might, adding depth only acquiring Oscar Fantenberg for a conditional fourth round pick in 2020, so frankly a freebie acquisition.
The Jets made a nice last minute pick-up bringing back veteran Matt Hendricks from Minnesota for a seventh rounder. That is good leadership and depth added for almost nothing.
Hendricks replaces the toughness lost when the Jets sent Brendan Lemieux to New York along with a 2019 first round draft choice for Kevin Hayes.
The Jets will need Hayes and toughness as Las Vegas got better adding Stone from Ottawa to upgrade their offence in a big way, Nashville got grittier adding Wayne Simmonds from Philadelphia, and perennial underachieving San Jose added Gustav Nyquist from Detroit. The NHL west definitely got more interesting thanks to trades.
