NHL Trade Deadline Winners and Losers - (The Toronto Maple Leafs Are Losers)

Florida Panthers (Also a Winner)

Last year Stanley Cup Finalists were probably the most complete team going into the Trade Deadline, they did not need to add much but were aggressive in going after the players they wanted. Going into the deadline the Panthers were widely regarded as one of the best defensive teams in the NHL that was missing offensive firepower.

To address this, the Panthers went out and traded for Vladimir Tarasenko from the Ottawa Senators for a third and a fourth-round pick. That is a heck of a deal considering the Toronto Maple Leafs had to pay a third and a sixth-round draft pick for Ilya Lybushkin.

Tarasenko is a complete defensive liability but that will be sheltered by the fact that he will be playing with two guys who will be in the Selke Trophy conversation Alexander Barkov and Sam Reinhart.

Tarasenko's defensive deficiencies will be completely hidden and his offensive abilities will shine. He is on a 24-goal pace which ranks in the top 15 percent of forwards and he is on a 57-point pace. He is a slightly above-average passer but is an elite scoring chance that excels off the rush ranking inside the top 15 percent of forwards in shots, shots of the rush and rush offence.

Tarasenko's shoot-first mentality will fit in great with this Panthers team that averages the most shots per game in the NHL. They also made one depth acquisition making a move for Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo which possibly makes the Panthers forward group the deepest in the NHL.

Okposo is projected to play on the Panthers fourth line, he is a great locker room guy and brings a ton of leadership. He is not the offensive player he once was but still ranks above the league average in finishing and goal-scoring.

He is also a physical, positionally sound player that ranks in the top 32 percent of forwards in defensive WAR. He won't play big minutes in the playoffs as he is not much of a penalty killer, but that was not the Panthers need. Okposo should give Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice the confidence to trust his fourth line more in the playoffs to take the workload off of the top three lines.

This team no longer has any weaknesses, they did not do a ton at the deadline but they did a great job of filling the couple of holes they had. This could already beat you in so many ways, now adding a borderline elite goal scorer this team gets all the more lethal.