LeBron: What NHL GMs say about the wild trade deadline — and whether it could be the new standard

Are we looking at a trend or a one-off?

No one can say for sure, of course, but the unprecedented number of deals in the run-up to Friday’s NHL trade deadline definitely makes you wonder.

Is this how it will be from now on?

It was incredible for the league at least. Quality and quantity. Day after day after day for weeks. Banger post-sausage.

Deadline day itself made something of a failure because there was almost no one around to trade. We had Bruce Boudreau entertaining us on TSN, at least.

And of course, we had Bad Labdard.

But in all seriousness, is this how the NHL will conduct business in the weeks leading up to the deadline, moving forward?

The first word on that goes to the general manager who has half a century of trade deadlines under his belt.

“My two cents: I think we’re very competitive people, and I don’t think it’s necessarily a trend. I think every year is different,” said David Boyle, retired Predators general manager. the athlete. “I believe in the domino effect — that certain things happen and people react to them, whether they plan for it or not.

“I think (Bo) Horvat’s deal was a big deal that got things started, and things only multiplied from there.”

Veteran Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was a similar read.

“I don’t feel like one season is a real indicator of any direction,” Armstrong said. the athlete. “I feel the separation from play-off to non-play-off teams seemed to make itself clear earlier this season than in recent years. The early deals seem to have been made by teams who accepted their position, put the asset value of the players they would move in and communicated that to the teams. in the playoff picture.

“For us, personally, the 11-day break in the All-Star Game gave us time to start the process with limited dynamic lineup changes to consider.”

The Blues have already signaled to teams early on that they are willing to listen to pending unrestricted agents Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev and Noel Accciari. They didn’t need to wait. That helped fuel the market early on.

But as it turns out, they weren’t alone. The Canucks, Poile said, had it all started in a meaningful way with the January 30 blockbuster Horvat.

In the days that followed, you could feel the hype around the league as general managers brought the intensity and focus of their trade conversations to a close. I remember picking up on that hype but still thinking, because of past practice, that a lot of what was to come would end closer to March 3rd.

mistake!

Next came Tarasenko on February 9, then O’Reilly-Aciari on February 17, Dimitri Orlov-Garnet Hathaway on February 23, Nino Niedretter on February 25, Timo Meyer on February 26, Tanner Janow on February 26, Jack McCabe-Sam Lafferty on February 27 , Mattias Ekholm on February 28th, Patrick Kane on February 28th, Jakob Chychrun on March 1st…

Absolutely wild.

Oils veteran Ken Holland thinks it could be a pattern that repeats itself.

“With so many teams in rebuilding mode and a relatively flat value next year, this could become the norm,” Holland said.

Wild GM Bill Guerin, who has been busy in the final week with five deals of his own, added: “In my opinion, it was because there were an extraordinary amount of star players available… teams couldn’t take the risk of waiting until the end just to get a better deal. I think it’s It could be something we see more of, but not necessarily in the way it will always be.”

As Guerin noted, many good players in the market may have played a role. This is not the case every year – not as deep as this market has been anyway.

“There were a lot of good options out there for buyers, so sellers wanted to close the deal as soon as the yield met their needs,” said Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen. “In some other years with fewer options in the market, sellers could push the market higher by waiting for offers to come in.” better “.

The other dynamic to consider is that you have some long winning program that is suddenly sold out.

“You’ve also had situations like us, where we decided to be big sellers,” Boyle said of the Predators. “St. Louis is a great seller. That’s not always the case.”

And you can throw Washington in there, too.

One GM, who didn’t want to be quoted, said that capitals on their own seem to play a big role in turnover. Indeed, Washington was a real wild card. The Caps looked like buyers a month ago, but an ill-timed losing streak spurred GM Brian McClellan to change gears and replace five players. It’s been a quick one-year retooling effort as Washington hopes to be competitive next season — and hopefully there’s a bit more luck on the injury front, too.

The swing of the caps in the trend was definitely affecting the overall market. Playoff-bound Boston, Toronto, Colorado and Minnesota have all dealt with them.

I would argue that Detroit’s decision to suddenly sell was second only to Washington, in terms of impact on the market last week. After losing twice to the Senators on consecutive Mondays and Tuesdays, the Red Wings wasted no time, substituting Philip Hronik on Wednesday and Tyler Bertuzzi on Thursday.

Whatever it was, we’ve seen deadline day like never before.

Direction or one-time?

Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas, the busiest CEO before the deadline, says his candid, candid answer is, “I don’t know.”

“It’s hard to say,” echoed Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon. “Every year is different.”

Short and sweet answers, sure, from Dubas and McCrimmon. But maybe I meant words.

Each deadline period is its own object, feeding into different elements, from arrangement to ceiling space to projections for rebuilding to expired contracts. These elements are present every year but not in the exact same form or ratio.

One could argue that, like a piece of art, each time period is its own design.

However, this year’s deadline period was an absolute masterpiece.

(Top photo by Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko: Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)