Well, that was, sort of…weird.
Friday afternoon’s NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone and many don’t know what to make of it. There were just under two dozen trades made. There was a last-minute buzzer-beater in Vegas. And there were some eyebrow-raising moves. But, for the most part, it felt like fluff, almost like a buildup to a letdown. There was no chaos, there were long stretches of no news and overall, it was just…weird.
Before we get into our analysis of what the Devils, Islanders, and Rangers did or didn’t do, here’s a link to the full list of trades made. And, of course, we’ll also talk about a couple of noteworthy trades that didn’t involve the three local teams.
New Jersey completed four trades on Friday, none bigger than sending pending UFA winger Tyler Toffoli to Winnipeg for a third-round pick in 2024 and a second-round pick in 2025. The Devils are also retaining 50% of Toffoli’s salary.
This move was expected, though Winnipeg being the destination came as a bit of a surprise. Once the Devils held Toffoli out of the lineup on Thursday against the Blues you knew it was just a matter of time before he was officially dealt somewhere.
“This was not a position I thought we’d be in,” GM Tom Fitzgerald told the media shortly after the deadline. “We look at this deadline as a transitional deadline, setting us up for the offseason…We have enough talent on this team to fight back.”
“Probably about two to three weeks ago, spoke to his (Toffoli’s) agent about the term,” Fitzgerald explained. “We didn’t even get by the terms of the deal. Circled back about 10 days ago…I was willing to have him as our rental and then address him in the offseason…Tyler wants a longer-term deal and at this point, we weren’t willing to do that…I’d do that trade seven days a week and twice on Sunday.”
Fitzgerald agonized over dealing with his team’s leading goal scorer, but in the end, “it was the right thing to do for this organization.”
The other “big trade” New Jersey completed was sending Vitek Vanecek and the Devils’ seventh-round pick in 2025 to San Jose in exchange for goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.
On the surface, this is just a goalie swap, but it holds much more importance than that. You see, Vanecek is under contract for next season and carries a $3.4M cap hit. Meanwhile, Kahkonen is a pending UFA. So, this deal allows the Garden Staters to get out from under Vanecek’s contract and start fresh in net.
“I hope they (the Devils) see this,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s an opportunity for us to set ourselves up this summer to have cap space for a position of need and to be quite honest, be big game hunting…We had another year of (Vanecek’s) contract. To get out of that, (we) set ourselves up this summer with a lot of flexibility in that position to pick and choose what we want to do.”
Essentially, Fitzgerald acknowledged his team’s shortcomings and created the ability to address it in multiple ways over the summer. And, in addition to this move, he also acquired goalie Jake Allen from the Canadiens in exchange for a conditional third-round pick in the 2025 draft. (The condition is, if Allen plays in 40 regular-season games for the Devils during the 2024-25 campaign and New Jersey qualifies for the playoffs that year, then the third-round pick will become a 2025 second-rounder). Montreal is also retaining 50% of Allen’s salary this year and next.
“Getting goaltenders is a tough thing,” Fitzgerald explained. “(I’ve) been in the market for quite some time…He (Jake Allen) waived (his no-trade protection) to come to us…We targeted Jake Allen for obvious reasons…It’s about getting the right person…He has a No-Trade Clause and we were on it…We inquired about Jake awhile back but were told we were on his No-Trade list…We’re excited for him to be here now.”
What these two deals mean for current netminders Akira Schmid and Nico Daws is that they can take some time to develop properly. According to Fitzgerald, Schmid has been sent to Utica so he can play regularly and gain confidence. Daws will likely see time in both Utica and New Jersey. The key for New Jersey is finding out what exactly they have in Schmid and Daws and whether either can be part of the team’s long-term plan in between the pipes.
The final move the Devils made was sending defenseman Colin Miller to Winnipeg – separate from the Toffoli deal – for the Jets’ fourth-round pick in 2026. This was just about obtaining future draft capital as Miller often rotated into and out of the lineup.
Meanwhile, across the river, the Rangers made their “big trade” on Wednesday when they acquired pending UFA center Alex Wennberg from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 conditional fourth-round pick. (The condition is that the fourth-rounder becomes a third-rounder in 2025 if Nils Lundkvist of the Stars tallies at least 55 points combined between last season and this one. The reason behind this odd condition is that the Rangers obtained this pick from the Stars in the Nils Lundkvist trade back in September of 2022.) Seattle is retaining 50% of Wennberg’s salary for this year.
This move gives the Blueshirts the third-line center they’ve been searching for ever since Filip Chytil was lost for the season with a concussion. It also gives New York a decent penalty-killer to add to their PK mix.
Other than that, the Rangers’ most consequential move was trading a conditional fourth-round pick in 2026 to Columbus for pending UFA forward Jack Roslovic. (The condition is, if the Rangers make it to the Stanley Cup Final and Roslovic plays at least 50% of their playoff games, then the fourth-round pick in 2026 will become a third-rounder in 2026).
This is where questions arise. While Roslovic is capable of playing all three forward positions, he usually lines up at center. And he’s not exactly a top-line right-wing type either. So, if the Rangers already obtained Wennberg, why then go out and get Roslovic? Perhaps the plan is to put Roslovic on a line with Wennberg and keep Kaapo Kakko as their top-line right-winger. Only time will tell.
New York’s other trades were acquiring defenseman Chad Ruhwedel from the Penguins in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2027 and obtaining forward Nic Petan from the Wild for forward Turner Elson.
The deal with Minnesota is strictly a depth trade that exchanges AHL forwards. The trade with Pittsburgh provides New York some blue line depth now that Captain Jacob Trouba is expected to miss the next two-to-three weeks due to an injury. GM Chris Drury told the media Trouba won’t go on IR “right now,” which implies it is still a possibility down the line.
As for the Islanders, GM Lou Lamoriello made no deals; not that he had much cap space or assets to work with. The Islanders are currently part of the NHL’s murky middle ground and while they’re currently riding a five-game winning streak, they are still not yet in a playoff spot. So, Lamoriello is going to ride the season out with what he’s got and then reassess during the summer.
Now, in terms of trades around The League, as it strictly pertains to Deadline Day, Vegas pulled off the most shocking move, acquiring forward Tomas Hertl, a third-round pick in 2025 and a third-round pick in 2027 from the Sharks in exchange for forward David Edstrom and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. The Sharks are retaining 17.1% of Hertl’s salary for the duration of his contract. (He has six-years left on his current deal after this season ends).
Nobody saw this trade coming. But, also, nobody should be surprised. Vegas has made it a habit to swing big whenever trade season is underway and this year was no different. With Mark Stone out for the rest of the regular-season and likely out for at least part of the playoffs, it makes sense to plug a player like Hertl into the lineup; that is, once Hertl returns from his own injury issues. Plus, it gives Vegas insurance should Jonathan Marchessault leave in free agency once July 1st comes around.
For the last trade, we’ll discuss here, how about Boston going out and getting pending UFA forward Patrick Maroon from the Wild for forward Luke Toporowski and a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. (Minnesota will only receive the sixth-round pick if Maroon returns from back surgery to play at least one Stanley Cup playoff game for the Bruins).
The reason we’re highlighting this trade is because of the very public spat Maroon and Bruins’ Play-by-Play announcer Jack Edwards had last season while Maroon was playing for the Lightning. Edwards made an off-color comment about Maroon’s weight while broadcasting a Lightning-Bruins game. Maroon and the Lightning made his displeasure with Edwards’ comments known shortly thereafter.
While the two aired things out a couple of months later there’s no doubt that this has the potential to be an awkward situation in the beginning. And let’s be honest, most hockey fans would love to see Maroon go after Edwards as the latter is highly despised around The League. We’re not advocating for it, we’re just pointing out the public sentiment.
Ok, that about wraps things up. It’s a good thing the Trade Deadline only comes once a year because it’s days like today that make you seriously question a lot of things that you normally wouldn’t.
