5 teams that didn’t do enough at the NHL Trade Deadline
The NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone once again. Plenty of teams loaded up or tore it down, but who were the teams that didn’t do enough to make their teams better now or in the future?
Another year of NHL trade deadline drama has passed, and the rumors are over for the time being. This year’s deadline was one of the most exciting in recent memory, with plenty of big-name players on the market and a majority of them actually getting moved. Now that the dust has settled, we know how every team will look heading into the playoffs or tanking for a draft pick.
Some teams’ general managers had to be dragged away from their phones kicking and screaming once the deadline passed. The Columbus Blue Jackets went all-in on the Stanley Cup this year by trading almost all of their draft picks for Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. The Winnipeg Jets on trade deadline day alone made six trades. The Washington Senators sold off the last valuable parts of their roster in order to commit to the rebuild. Several contenders loaded up for their playoff runs, making these postseason races even more interesting.
Yet, there were several teams that chose to spend the trade deadline sitting on their hands, tinkering inconsequentially around the edges or just doing nothing at all. Some teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t need anything at all at the deadline, and did nothing, but there were several teams that needed some work done for the betterment of their teams’ chances at a Stanley Cup whether this year or in the future.
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 5: Connor McDavid #97 of the Edmonton Oilers listens to the national anthem before the game against the Los Angeles Kings at STAPLES Center on January 5, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NHLI via Getty Images)
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers continue to waste the youth of Connor McDavid, and did the same thing they’ve always done to try to fix it: nothing. They didn’t have big names to sell on the rental market, but they still had work to do in order to pull themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves. Instead, they’ve decided to delegate it all to the offseason.
One obvious move they had make is Alex Chiasson, who signed league-minimum with the intention of being a depth player in the offseason, but instead found himself on an insane shooting percentage bender to begin the season and has a career-best 17 goals. He has, however, cooled off significantly since the new year. There are three options for what the Oilers could do: Trade him, lose him for nothing or sign him to an over-inflated extension. Now that the deadline has passed, instead of getting a solid draft pick for a player who over-performed, they’ll get nothing for him.
Other names that could have been moved include Tobias Reider, Zach Kassian and Kyle Brodziak, all of whom have underperformed this season given their roles. There were rumors that Adam Larsson could’ve been on the move in trade for some scoring help on the wings, but the deals fell through.
So what was the point of keeping all of these players? Are they still trying to make the playoffs? The projected cutoff to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference is around 84 points this season. To reach that mark, the Oilers would need a record of 13-6-2 through the rest of the season. Realistically, reaching the playoffs is a long shot for the Oilers. The roster as its been this season is incapable of doing so, so if they wanted to make the playoffs they needed to buy a little bit. Sitting on their hands achieves nothing.
The other goal of the Oilers was to shed salary in order to make room for more talent in the future. No matter what the cost, the Oilers cannot get better until they find a way to get the cap hits of Milan Lucic and Kris Russel off of their books. They can do that in the offseason, but they should have tried to start the process at this deadline with some of the smaller issues.
How much longer will the Oilers continue to spin their wheels and waste the best years of McDavid? They need to shed some of the ridiculous contracts that they handed out to undeserving players, and they need actual talent on the wings rather than marginal call-ups from the AHL alongside McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins if they want to start competing for Stanley Cups.