The Friday Four: Best trade deadline moves from last season

The Friday Four, a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing player performances continues this week with a bit of a look back at last year’s trade deadline, and the impact it’s having today. We’ll look at:

• Boston acquiring Taylor Hall.

• How the Penguins came out with a big win in the Jeff Carter trade, but also how Los Angeles didn’t “lose” the deal.

• Sam Bennett realizing his potential in Florida and how the deal helped the Calgary Flames in 2022.

• And this biggest trade of the 2021 deadline that we just haven’t been able to see play out yet.

To Boston: Taylor Hall, Curtis Lazar
To Buffalo: Anders Bjork, 2021 second-round pick

Secondary scoring has developed as a sore issue for the Bruins as they try to maintain Stanley Cup contender status and last year they tried to boost it by adding Hall to play on the second line with centre David Krejci.

It wasn’t guaranteed to work. Hall scored just 14 goals in his 81 combined regular- and post-season games with Buffalo and Arizona before this deal was made, but certainly worth the price of acquisition. Bjork, a depth player, and a second-rounder is a mild cost for a former Hart Trophy winner still in his prime years.

Hall found instant chemistry with Krejci and was just shy of being a point-per-game player the rest of the regular season. In the 27 overall games he played with Boston to finish the season, Hall scored 11 times.

A free agent in the summer, Hall’s preferred spot was always Boston, so it wasn’t surprising when he signed a reasonable four-year deal and $6 million AAV. The cost against the cap was another win for Boston, given that it represented a smaller percentage of the cap than either of the other two post-ELC deals Hall had signed in his career.

As a 30-year-old now, Hall has continued to be productive without Krejci, fourth in team scoring with 36 points in 50 games and acting as more of a distributor now. Hall leads the Bruins in primary assists and still has managed a hefty 131 shots. He’s been a great pickup for the Bruins since arriving, both for his contributions down the stretch and in the playoffs last season, and his importance to the team this season.

To Pittsburgh: Jeff Carter
To Los Angeles: Conditional third- and fourth-round draft picks

This looked like a minor pickup to help more with depth than for any notable production when it happened, but acquiring Carter has been a home run of a decision for GM Ron Hextall.

Carter arrived as a 36-year-old who had eight goals in 40 games. He hadn’t scored even 20 in a season since 2016-17. What he could bring, though, was winning know-how and experience, and the ability to play at centre or on the wing.

However, Carter has found some version of the fountain of youth in Pittsburgh, starting by scoring nine goals in the final 14 regular season games of last season and then leading the Penguins with four goals in six playoffs games. Chalk it up to capturing lightning in a bottle and a new-team bump, eh?

Only this season Carter has continued to post numbers better than most expected at the time of the trade. In 46 games he has 13 goals, which is about a 23-goal pace, and his 29 points pace for about 53 over 82 games. All of this means Carter is tracking towards his best season in five years.

When Carter was added for conditional picks, he was signed through the 2021-22 season so the Pens were buying two runs with him. And now they’ve jumped back into the Stanley Cup contenders’ circle with the option to run three centres deep with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Carter, or to put Carter on the second line wing next to Malkin, where he currently resides.

He’s fit in so well that Carter actually signed a two-year extension with the Pens for a $3.125 million AAV. As the Pens face tough contract decisions around other UFAs Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust, the fact they extended Carter seems to indicate they are not looking to take any steps back here. Great fit, great production and long-term impact for minimal cost. Great deal for the Penguins. And it’s not even as though the Kings lost the trade either, as Carter’s hole left room for others to get an opportunity and Los Angeles is looking at a real possibility of getting back to the post-season now.

To Florida: Sam Bennett, 2022 sixth-round pick
To Calgary: Emil Heineman, 2022 second-round pick

When this trade came across on deadline day I had one immediate thought:

This is a playoff move.

Bennett has historically not been one for big regular season production. The fourth overall pick in 2014 was at his best offensively as a rookie when he posted 18 goals and 36 points. By the time he asked his way out of Calgary, he was a player who would produce about 25 points a year.

But in the playoffs Bennett would seem to take on a different, more urgent form.

Since arriving in Florida, though, Bennett has been at his best at all times. He scored 15 points in 10 regular season games right after landing with the Panthers, and then put together another strong playoff showing — with a one-game suspension in there. Bennett scored a point in 13 of the 15 games he played after the trade last season, including six multi-point games.

And now in 2021-22 Bennett is on track for his best season yet. His 22 goals are second on the team and are already a career-high; his 31 points are just six shy of a new personal best with 31 games still to go. A valued second-line centre elevated as well playing alongside Jonathan Huberdeau as he makes a case for league MVP, this is not a position any Flames fan could have envisioned Bennett taking over. The Panthers picked up a playoff player and ended up with an important all-seasons contributor. The riskiest thing about this move may have been the four-year extension Florida signed him to that came with a $4.425 million AAV. Had he continued on as a 25-point player, that would be a problem.

Like the Kings, it’s not as if Calgary lost this trade either. Bennett had asked out and was just not working in a top-six role. Things had grown stale there and it’s unlikely Bennett would have found the same success with the Flames as he has in Florida. Not only has Calgary got back on track post-Bennett, but they used Heineman in the Tyler Toffoli deal and will get him for two runs.

In the end, Calgary effectively traded a struggling Bennett, a first-rounder, a sixth-rounder and Tyler Pitlick for Toffoli and a second-rounder.

To Washington: Anthony Mantha
To Detroit: Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik, 2021 first-round pick, 2022 second-round pick

This one ranked No. 1 on the excitement and shock scales, coming in just before the deadline. A good ol’ hockey trade, the best thing you can name on these days.

The weird thing is, though, as much as we can’t wait to see how this one plays out, neither of the primary players involved has played all that much 10 months later.

Both Mantha and Vrana finished last season strong enough — Mantha with four goals and eight points in 14 games; Vrana with 11 points in 11 games. This season, though, Vrana hasn’t played a game yet due to injury and Mantha scored six points in his first 10 games but has also been injured since November. Both made progress this week.

Starting with Vrana, he was always a player in Washington who had strong scoring rate per minute stats, but wasn’t given an increased role. With the Red Wings in a short window, Vrana’s even-strength time on ice shot up and his numbers did, too.

Vrana has been cleared for contact again and seems to be nearing a return for the Red Wings.

Mantha joined the Capitals at their skate earlier this week, the first time he had done so since November, but in a non-contact sweater. His return may be a bit further off. Not only are these two players going to be compared in this deal for years to come because they were the primary pieces, the two also have comparative contracts: Vrana a $5.25 million AAV through 2023-24 and Mantha $5.7 million through 2023-24.

But wait, there’s more.

An important piece of this long-term will also be what that Washington first-rounder turned into. The Red Wings flipped that selection at the draft to move up to 15th overall, where they nabbed goalie Sebastian Cossa. He backstops the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings, who are a real Memorial Cup threat this season, positioned No. 1 in the latest CHL team rankings. The last time Steve Yzerman traded for an additional first round pick and used it on a goalie, he selected Andrei Vasilevskiy 19th overall in 2012. Of course, if Cossa comes anything close to being that kind of netminder, Detroit would come out well ahead here.