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NHL trade deadline 2022 winners, losers: Contenders bulk up, but no goalie fix could hurt some
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- NHL trade deadline 2022 winners, losers: Contenders bulk up, but no goalie fix could hurt some
The NHL trade deadline finished with a flurry.
Even with a bunch of big moves during the weekend, there was plenty of activity before Monday's 3 p.m. ET deadline.
Top available goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury moved to the Minnesota Wild , the New York Rangers improved up front and on defense, the expansion Seattle Kraken continued moving players for draft picks and Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek made his fourth trade of a pending unrestricted free agent.
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With most of the top contenders making moves in the last week and the Calgary Flames adding Tyler Toffoli earlier, the playoffs should be highly contested.
NHL TRADE DEADLINE: Recapping deadline as flurry of deals strike at the buzzer
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Including the moves leading in the final week, here are the winners and losers of the trade deadline.
WINNERS
Colorado Avalanche
The only weaknesses on the Avalanche were grit on the blue line, faceoffs and penalty killing. Defenseman Josh Manson helps with both, and Monday, the Avalanche acquired forwards Artturi Lehkonen , Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano , who kill penalties. Sturm wins more than 50 percent of his faceoffs. The Avalanche gave up top prospect Justin Barron, but this is their year to win.
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Florida Panthers
Former Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux moves onto the top line in a bid for his first Stanley Cup. Defenseman Ben Chiarot played a key role in the Montreal Canadiens ' run to the 2021 Final. Just as with last year, an injury to No. 1 defenseman Aaron Ekblad will play a key role, but general manager Bill Zito told NHL Network he believes Ekblad will be back for the playoffs.
Marc-Andre Fleury
The three-time Stanley Cup winner moves from the non-playoff Chicago Blackhawks to the contending Wild. The 2021 Vezina Trophy winner gets a chance to go on another run as he did when he helped take the Vegas Golden Knights to the semifinals last season. He's close to family in Chicago and he gets to work for general manager Bill Guerin, his former Penguins teammate.
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New York Rangers
The Rangers had a lot of cap space available and it looked at first that they weren't going to do much after adding Frank Vatrano last week. But they made a flurry at the end by adding forwards Andrew Copp and Tyler Motte , plus defenseman Justin Braun . Their bottom-six forwards and defense are deeper and the team has more experience. The key is Copp, a highly valued two-way forward.
Tampa Bay Lightning
GM Julien BriseBois continues to work salary cap magic. The team had lost its entire third line in the offseason, but he managed to add Brandon Hagel , Nick Paul and Riley Nash recently. With goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy , defenseman Victor Hedman and a staple of talented forwards, the Lightning could win a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
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LOSERS
Edmonton Oilers
The thought was they needed to improve their goaltending, but they didn't. They added defenseman Brett Kulak and forward Derick Brassard , fine on its own for a team that has high-powered offensive players Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl , but it might not be enough for a team that needs a strong playoffs after it was swept in the first round last season.
Toronto Maple Leafs
The pickup of defenseman Mark Giordano will help the power play and transition game. But the Maple Leafs, too, are having goaltending issues. They signed Finnish Olympic gold medalist Harri Sateri, but had to expose him to waivers and he was claimed by the Arizona Coyotes .
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Wild goalie Cam Talbot
The Wild were giving up loads of goals after the All-Star break, but Talbot had turned around his game recently. It will be interesting to see how the Wild split time between him and Fleury. The Fleury trade might have been more an assessment about backup goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, who had lost six in a row and was traded to the San Jose Sharks.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Golden Knights made their big move in the fall by acquiring Jack Eichel but had to wait until he returned from neck surgery. He's playing, but the team is banged up and tight against the cap. They dealt Evgenii Dadonov to the Ducks in a bid to clear up cap space but later tweeted that there might be an issue with the trade.
Two days later, the league voided the deal because it violated terms of Dadonov's limited no-trade clause. That puts the Golden Knights back in a cap bind as they have fallen out a playoff spot amid a slump.
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Lack of a bigger day
Coyotes players Jakob Chychrun and Phil Kessel, Canucks players J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, Stars defenseman John Klingberg and other big names were mentioned in trade rumors, but they stayed put.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHL trade deadline winners, losers: Avs bulk up, Leafs miss on goalies
