The deadline dominoes have fallen and, and barring any more trickle-in deals, the league’s 31 rosters appear to be set for the home stretch.
It was a busy Feb. 24 around the league. Among Canadian clubs, Edmonton seems to have come away with the best haul, adding a marquee forward to line up alongside Connor McDavid in Andreas Athanasiou, as well as defender Mike Green and talented veteran Tyler Ennis. Their Albertan rivals in Calgary beefed up their blue line, most notably with the addition of talented defender Erik Gustafsson.
The two biggest trade chips heading into deadline day both wound up with long-term extensions, in wildly different situations. Jean-Gabriel Pageau moved from Ottawa to the Islanders, earning a six-year extension from GM Lou Lamoriello. Chris Kreider, meanwhile, stuck with his club, signing a seven-year deal with the Rangers.
Lamoriello’s squad wasn’t the only Eastern bubble team to load up — the Hurricanes swung big at the deadline, sending four players to Florida for centre Vincent Trocheck, while adding a pair of talented defenders in Brady Skjei and Sami Vatanen.
Right above them in the Metro, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford continued to go all-in on re-tooling his forward corps, bringing in Patrick Marleau, Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues on deadline day.
Look back on the best of the day’s action via our Trade Deadline Blog below:
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