NHL trade deadline winners and losers: Leafs, Bruins, Red Wings among biggest winners
Who emerged from the NHL trade deadline as the biggest winners and losers?
The 2021 NHL trade deadline was one of the least eventful in NHL history. There were just 17 moves made on deadline day, according to CapFriendly. To put this in perspective, there were 31 trades made on deadline day in 2020. However, there was still a bit of action leading up to deadline day.
Some teams improved. Others didn’t. Some of those teams who improved did so in the short-term while others improved in the long term. There were some teams who were inexplicably inactive and teams who made some bad moves. Let’s take a look at who emerged from the 2021 trade deadline as the biggest winners and losers.
Winner: Columbus Blue Jackets
In 2019, the Columbus Blue Jackets went all-in at the trade deadline. They gave up a first round pick, two second round picks (one in 2020 and the other in 2021), Anthony Duclair, a 2022 fifth-round pick, a 2019 fourth-round pick, and a 2019 seventh-round pick to acquire Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Keith Kinkaid, and Adam McQuaid.
It didn’t pay off for them, though they did win a postseason series for the first time in franchise history. Going all-in cost them quite a bit. In 2021, the Blue Jackets did quite a bit to help get back what they lost.
They traded David Savard to the Tampa Bay Lightning (with some help from the Detroit Red Wings) for a 2021 first-round pick and a 2022 third-round pick. Next, captain Nick Foligno headed to Toronto with a stop in San Jose for another first-round pick and a 2022 fourth-round pick. Credit to the Blue Jackets for getting two first round picks.
Loser: Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks should have been sellers. They should have been selling off anything that wasn’t nailed down to the floor. Instead, all the Ducks did at the trade deadline was trade Ben Hutton to the Leafs for a 2022 fifth-round pick and acquire Haydn Fleury from the Carolina Hurricanes.
To their credit, the Ducks tried to work something out with the Vegas Golden Knights and Ryan Getzlaf, but nothing happened. The Ducks’ inaction is, frankly, inexcusable considering they’re rebuilding.