A Third Winner: The Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning didn't make a deal on deadline day but they made a huge one a couple of days before the deadline.
Tampa Bay traded Michael Eyssimont, a second-round pick this year, two conditional first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 to Seattle in exchange for Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand and a fifth-round pick in 2026.
While it was pricey, Tampa filled their two needs this deadline and look scary. Bjorkstrand will play in their top-six and Gourde, who has familiarity with the organization will play third-line centre.
This is a really underrated trade because most people don't know how good Bjorkstrand is. He will fit seamlessly into Tampa's top six, while Gourde was one of the better 3C's available and certainly preferable to Scott Laughton.
In a seller's market, you need to pay the price if you want to make your team better and that's what they did. Vasilevskiy is looking like his old self, Kucherov is playing like Kucherov, Hedman is playing great and Guentzel has been an outstanding fit for this team.
Tampa is poised to be a problem in the playoffs yet again.