Golden Knights (Winner)
The Las Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup last year and were not content to sit on the sidelines and enter the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
They added Anthony Mantha on the cheap, a sneaky-good move since he's putting up star-level numbers this years, at least at 5v5. A very efficient scorere, Mantha adds size and scoring to an already dangerous lineup.
Getting him so cheaply would alone put the Knights in the winners circle, but then they went full EA Sports GM Mode, acting like the LTIR was a gift from Gary Bettman to them personally.
The knights added potentiallyt the two best players that were traded this week.
Noah Hanifin was considered the prize of the deadline by most observers and the Golden Knights swooped in and added him to an already great blue line, much to the consternation of many Toronto Maple Leafs fans.
But what they did next shocked the hockey world. There wasn't even a rumour that Tomas Hertl was available, because why would a player with 7 years left on his contract be an option for a team that is close to capped out?
I'll leave the cost of prospects and future cap space to others, but the adding a #1 centre to go with a top-pairing defender and a top-six winger is absolutely crazy.
Tomas Hertle is an absolutely crazy pickup. This is a borderline franchise player who is still just 30 years old and who was posting solid results on one of the worst teams assembled in the cap era.
The Golden Knights were big winners this week and 31 other fanbases are extremely jealous.