Eastern Conference Loads Up, but Panthers and Lightning Remain a Class Ahead

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The road to the Stanley Cup goes through Florida. That became even more apparent at the 2022 NHL trade deadline Monday. 

Whether or not the top team in the Eastern Conference comes from the gulf side of Alligator Alley or the East Coast side of the Sunshine State, the additions made by the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning have put the teams in prime position to play deep into the postseason and beat each other up in the Eastern Conference Final. 

The Eastern Conference playoff spots have been locked up for months. All that’s left is to jockey for playoff positioning. All of the East teams got better, but they’re all still chasing the two Florida clubs. 

The goal shouldn’t be to get into the playoffs, it should be to win the Stanley Cup. Sometimes postseason experience can benefit young players, but oftentimes, if teams that aren’t ready to contend for a Cup end up in the postseason, it only sets them back. Some clubs—such as the Anaheim Ducks—wisely understood that and decided not to buy to try to grab a wild-card spot. 

Instead, some of the Ducks’ top players ended up on Eastern Conference teams. Will they be enough to make a difference? Did any franchise do enough to cross over into that contender territory?

Let’s unpack some of the most impactful trades and see how the teams in the deeper of the two conferences stack up. 

The Contenders: Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes 

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The Florida Panthers have pushed all of their chips to the center of the table.

Which, honestly, is what a team scoring more than 4.0 goals per game and leading the league in shot volume should do. Florida was marred by chaos in the front office and behind the bench for years, with the Panthers famously leaving coach Gerard Gallant at the curb after firing him in 2016.

Joel Quenneville resigned in October during the investigation of the Chicago Blackhawks’ handling of sexual assault allegations from former player Kyle Beach, and Andrew Brunette has deftly guided the team to the top of the conference. 

The Panthers already have elite talent at nearly every position, but the rich got richer with the additions of defenseman Ben Chiarot and forward Claude Giroux, who is having an All-Star season. The former Flyers captain used his no-trade protection to engineer a deal to the Panthers.

“I’m here to win. I’m here to help the team win,” he told reporters in his opening press conference. “I think this team has a great chance to go far in the playoffs.”

For the second year in a row, the biggest nemesis for the two-time Stanley Cup champions in Tampa was the salary cap. But still, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois found a way to maneuver around it and make additions.

Brandon Hagel cost first-round picks in 2023 and 2024 and rookie forwards Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh, but he has two years on his contract before restricted free agency, which basically means four years of team control.

The club is hoping he’s its 2022 version of Blake Coleman, the under-the-radar power forward it acquired from the New Jersey Devils at the 2020 deadline. They also brought in forward Nick Paul from the Ottawa Senators and fit him under the cap thanks to his previous club’s willingness to retain 44.5 percent of his salary, per ESPN.

The Carolina Hurricanes only made one notable deal, acquiring Max Domi right at the deadline in a three-team trade with the Panthers and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Columbus sent Domi and a 2022 sixth-round pick (which was previously acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs) to the Panthers for defenseman Tyler Inamoto, and then traded Inamoto to Carolina for defenseman Aidan Hreschuk, while Florida sent Domi to the ‘Canes for Egor Korshkov.

Are you following yet?

Even if you’re not, what you need to know is that the all-offense Domi will be moved to the wing, which is probably where he’s most effective. The question is whether he can get along with coach Rod Brind’Amour, considering his issues with coaches Claude Julien and John Tortorella. 

These teams didn’t need to make big moves, but they did because good clubs use the trade deadline to get better. 

Could Make a Run: Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins 

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Not only did the Toronto Maple Leafs fail to address their goaltending situation, but they also lost Harri Sateri on waivers. However, Petr Mrazek cleared waivers, so it’s status quo for Toronto in net, though not for lack of effort.

Toronto GM Kyle Dubas had conversations with the Blackhawks about Marc-Andre Fleury, and they were leaked to the media, which he was clearly unhappy about. 

“I’m disappointed that that conversation is public,” Dubas said of Darren Dreger’s report. “I’m not criticizing you, I’ve just never had that before where these specifics like that have been made public. I think, frankly, that’s probably a conversation to ask Kyle Davidson on his availability in Chicago.”

However, they did address a big need on the blue line by bringing in Mark Giordano and added to the forward depth with Colin Blackwell in a trade with the Seattle Kraken. 

A Toronto native, Giordano isn’t exactly isn’t in his prime at age 38, but he’s still an effective, respected defenseman, and it reunites him with his former Calgary Flames defense partner, TJ Brodie. It was a necessary move with Rasmus Sandin (knee) and Jake Muzzin (concussion) injured.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins made big improvements thanks to Anaheim. Defenseman Hampus Lindholm was traded to Boston and subsequently signed to an eight-year deal. The Bruins gave up a lot to get Lindholm, and for good reason—the 28-year-old is a mobile puck-mover with two-way abilities and was the top defenseman on the market. 

They also kept Jake DeBrusk, who requested a trade earlier this season. Nothing materialized after they had discussions about moving him, and they extended his contract for two years at $8 million.

“I’ve been having discussions on Jake for months. Today wasn’t any different in terms of where teams thought he fit into their group and what they were trying to do,” general manager Don Sweeney said. “Some teams were down the road on other things, and we’ll pivot back maybe. But it doesn’t really matter at this point. Like I said, sent a clear message to Jake and he sent one to us, that he just wants to play hockey. Bottom line is he knows he’s an important part if he plays to his capabilities, he’s going to help us and help himself.”

The Penguins added Rickard Rakell, which gives the forward group a big weapon. He creates a lot of offense off the rush and is a responsible defender. He’s scored 30 or more goals twice, though he’s coming off a few down seasons. Some of that can be attributed to the Ducks’ rebuild, and the 28-year-old should return to his old form with better linemates around him.

The biggest issue for the New York Rangers was depth. They boast a star-laden roster, but it had a steep drop-off in talent from the top two lines to the bottom two. First-year GM Chris Drury addressed that by adding Frank Vatrano, Andrew Copp and Tyler Motte.

Veteran defenseman Justin Braun takes the pressure off rookie Braden Schneider. With salary-cap issues looming in the next few years, Drury did what he could to bring in rentals without sacrificing too much talent from an exceptionally deep prospect pool.

The Pretenders: Washington Capitals

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The Washington Capitals brought back Marcus Johansson, who played seven seasons in Washington, in a trade with the Seattle Kraken. General manager Brian MacLellan likes his familiarity with the system and the personnel.

“He knows our power play really well, he can come in and he’s comfortable right away, in my mind,” MacLellan said. “He knows how guys play, he knows what he can do to play with them. That was attractive in our mind. We’ll work it out. We’ll see what works in the lines, the coaches will have him, try him with different guys and see what role he can play with us.”

But the problem with the Capitals is their goaltending. It’s shaky at best, as Ilya Samsonov has underachieved, Vitek Vanecek was out with an upper-body injury and the team has filled the gaps with Zachary Fucale and Pheonix Copley. The Caps aren’t the only team with questions in net, and the best defense in the NHL is offense, which the Caps do have. 

You could say the Leafs or the Bruins belong in this category, and you could make the argument that the Caps don’t belong here. It’s such a deep conference. Any of these teams could be capable of making a run, or they could get eliminated in the first round, like Tampa Bay in 2019.

There is plenty of time for teams to integrate their new players and plenty of time for things to go wrong, so let’s drop the puck on the rest of the season. 

Advanced statistics via Natural Stat Trick. Salary-cap info via CapFriendly unless otherwise noted.