More Winners
Boston Bruins
Many will point to the Bruins not getting enough for Marchand, especially with how far the market was in favour of sellers, but the B's clearly wanted to do right by a franchise great and it's not like there were many options for them to trade him to. I felt the need to get that out of the way first because the main reason that the Bruins land in the "winners" category is their work outside of this. They are a team that has fallen from grace a bit, finding themselves on the outside looking in and have decided to try and do a quick retool.
They received multiple high draft picks (likely two firsts, three seconds, and more) over the coming seasons for; Brad Marchand, Trent Frederic, Max Jones, Justin Brazeau, Charlie Coyle, and Brandon Carlo. On top of this they were able to acquire multiple young players and prospects that should make impacts in the coming seasons in; Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, and William Zellers. They also bought low on Casey Mittelstadt who has the potential to be a legitimate second-line center and a legitimte NHL defender in Henri Jokiharju for a fourth round pick.
Given their position, the Bruins were able to get some good pieces for the future and a potential project in Mittelstadt who could be an impact player for them for years to come. An overlooked part moving forward because of some of these moves is that the Bruins have nearly $30 million with many key players locked up long-term already, they could be big players in free agency and if they spend right, they could be back into contention in short order.
Carolina Hurricanes
Looking at the two major trades that Eric Tulsky made over the past six weeks, you might think that they lost by acquiring a player, failing to extend him and then trading him but if you look at the assets that the club acquired between both deals, it makes them winners in my opinion.
They essentially traded; Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a second, third, and fourth round picks for Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven, Nils Juntorp, two first round picks, and two third round picks. This is good asset management no matter what way you look at it.
They got a very valuable piece for the future in Stankoven, he is having a down year offensively this year but projects to bounce back. Hall is expected to sign an extension, which locks him up for the future. The two firsts and thirds can either be used to make moves to improve their team going forward or used to fill their prospect cupboards. Overall, this was a good exercise in asset management and the outside of the box thinking that many fans are begging NHL executives to do.
Seattle Kraken
The Seatte Kraken continue to be left on the outside looking in and as such, they rightly decided to take advantage of the market and sell-off a few assets. This resulted in a fairly big haul from the Tampa Bay Lightning, trading rental Yanni Gourde and the struggling Oliver Bjorkstrand for 2026 and 2027 first round picks as well as a 2025 second and depth forward Michael Eyssimont. This is an incredibly big return, even accounting for the market.
They also flipped bottom-six winger Brandon Tanev back to the Winnipeg Jets for a 2027 second and in a good bit of asset management traded Daniel Sprong to the Devils for a seventh after acquiring him for future considerations earlier this year.
These moves come after buying-low on former second overall pick Kaapo Kakko earlier this year, which has looked like a great move so far. The team continues to build for the future and despite being in risk of becoming perennially mediocre, they have many good young players that they should be able to build around. Hopefully they can follow this solid deadline up with some better free agent decisions.
Dallas Stars
Saving the best for last, Stars GM Jim Nill should become a permanent fixture on the Jim Gregory award ballots for GM of the year. The work he has done building his team with very few high picks, and the work he has done to supplement the team with gems and consistently making buys to make impactful adds to his team is commendable. This year is the cream of the crop, a month ago he traded a 2025 first and conditional 2025 third for Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci, which in and of itself is a good acquisition. Granlund is a legitimate impact top/middle-six forward and Ceci is solid third-pairing depth.
However, in the wee hours of the night, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman tweeted that the Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes were working on a Mikko Rantanen trade. Then as the day progressed, we got more clarity until it dropped that the Stars were acquiring Rantanen for Logan Stankoven, two firsts (2026/2028) and two third round picks (2026/2027). It is undoubtedly a steep price but being able to get a superstar player and lock him up for eight years with a $12 million AAV, is very good work. This trade makes an already scary Stars team look like serious Stanley Cup contenders.
The team also announced a five-year deal for Wyatt Johnston carrying a team-friendly $8.45 million AAV, another piece of good business by Nill. The team is positioned to be competitive for many years to come.