It’s always exciting to see which players get swapped and what teams emerge as buyers and sellers at each year’s trade deadline. What might be even more exciting, however, is analyzing who prevailed and who faltered as the league gets ready for the final stretch of the regular season. 2026 didn’t provide an incredibly exciting trade deadline, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t teams I felt won and lost the day.  

Winners

Aggressive Sellers

One of the greatest annual mysteries during the NHL is the appetite for movement at the trade deadline. Each year presents the opportunity for buying clubs or selling clubs to be the winners of deadline season, and this year belonged to the sellers. Those who didn’t wait for the very final minutes to finalize a deal were rewarded with excellent returns. Fourth-line pieces like Michael McCarron and Nic Dowd were moved for second-round picks, while other bottom-sixers like Nicholas Roy and Jason Dickinson received firsts. The defenseman market also yielded some favourable returns, with Connor Murphy, Tyler Myers, Luke Schenn, and Logan Stanley all being acquired for second-round picks. The Justin Faulk trade is another that stood out to me (which I’ll elaborate on later) as one that yielded a very favourable return for the St. Louis Blues.

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Not all selling teams were met with the same value on their deals, but the market generally rewarded those who had gritty, veteran players to spare.

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St. Louis Blues

It may not look super glamorous on the surface, but I’m a fan of what the Blues did on Friday. First off, the return they received from the Red Wings in exchange for Justin Faulk was one of my favourites of the entire trade season. A package including a first-round pick, a third-round pick, and prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov is a great return for an aging defenseman with pretty poor underlying metrics. That trade was tidy work from GM Bill Armstrong, but it isn’t the only reason I’m impressed by the Blues deadline.

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The Blues might possess the most interesting crop of trade bait in the entire league. Colton Parayko, Jordan Binnington, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas are all names that have been mentioned in trade talks over the past year or so. Now that the Blues are at the bottom of the standings, it makes sense for Armstrong to start shipping out these established players to kickstart a full rebuild. So why didn’t they trade any of them?

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I’m all-in on the Blues tearing things down and rebuilding a new core, but that doesn’t mean they have to ship out all of their assets for the first offer they receive. A Parayko trade was set in place with the Sabres for a very nice return, but was ultimately axed due to the use of Parayko’s no-trade clause. Instead of pivoting to find another quick trade partner, the Blues stayed put. They held onto Parayko, as well as Binnington, Kyrou, and Thomas, because they all have term remaining on their contracts. None of those players are eligible to walk in the off-season, so why force a trade now? I applaud Armstrong’s plan to keep his assets through the season and potentially open the door to trade discussion closer to the NHL draft, when teams have more time to formulate packages that are desirable to the Blues.

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Anaheim Ducks

The Blues were more a sneaky deadline day winner, but the Anaheim Ducks were obvious. Only one major move was made by the Ducks on Friday, but it was probably the best deal of the day. Shockingly, John Carlson was traded to Anaheim for a conditional first-round pick and a third-round pick. Despite his age, Carlson is still a fantastic defenseman and should give a big boost to this Ducks blue line, both at even strength and on the power play, as they push for a division title. The Pacific division is wide open, so it made sense for the Ducks to push some chips into the middle and make a play for an impact player. This deadline season saw many of the top cup contenders around the league sit on their hands and keep their current rosters intact. But not the Ducks. They swung for a big move, and I’d bet my house that it pays off.

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Losers

Brad Treliving

The Maple Leafs are a disaster. It’s been a nightmare of a season for the team, both standings-wise and from individual performances, but the one thing that could have salvaged a tiny bit of good from an otherwise terrible year was Friday’s deadline. If you couldn’t tell already, I don’t think they did enough to warrant any praise, and they certainly didn’t do enough for GM Brad Treliving to keep his job. A first-round pick in return for Nicholas Roy was a very nice return, one I didn’t think he’d garner, but that’s probably the only positive thing to take away from the Leafs deadline. Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton both being moved for picks outside of the first round, as well as the inability to find a suitor for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, isn’t exactly good business from Treliving and his front office.

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I refrained from calling the entire Leafs organization deadline losers because Treliving is almost certainly going to lose his job at season’s end, which is undeniably a win for the Maple Leafs, and should allow them an attempt at salvaging the remaining years of Auston Matthews time in Toronto.  

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Nashville Predators

A common trade deadline loser is any team that should use the opportunity to help set a direction for their club, has the assets to do so, but (for whatever reason) chooses not to. The Nashville Predators were one of the biggest culprits of this on Friday. A club that is the epitome of directionless mediocrity in the current NHL landscape, and decided not to sell off meaningful assets at this year’s deadline. The Predators situation is a little more forgivable than some, as they were still able to sell off some expiring contracts like Michael Bunting and Michael McCarron, and they received solid draft capital in return. The issue lies with their bigger budget players, those like Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly, and Johnathan Marchessault, who have been floating around trade rumours all season. Unlike St. Louis, the Preds top assets are all on the wrong side of the league’s aging curve, so it makes sense to trade them off as soon as possible and kickstart a much needed rebuild. The problem with moving players under big contracts is that they often come with full or modified trade clauses, which can void trades that the teams put in place (see Colton Parayko). Nashville isn’t contending for a cup with this current roster, and they aren’t currently bad enough to be assured of a top pick in this year’s draft. With little premier talent in their prospect pool, it’s only a matter of time before they tear everything down.

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Seattle Kraken

The Kraken have got to be the most bizarre team in the entire league. They’re currently hanging on to the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference, but I don’t think anyone really sees them as a threat to upset a cup contender come playoff time. On top of their place of pure mediocrity in the standings, they might also feature the league’s least entertaining roster. It’s a team that is completely starved of talent, and they seem to be doing everything in their power to keep it that way. Their only noteworthy move this deadline was the addition of forward Bobby McMann, who would have been a wonderful add for a true cup contender, but for the Kraken, he’s yet another depth player who will only help keep them from improving the team’s draft position. Seattle is in complete no-man’s land and might truly be the most directionless team in the NHL. There are a few noteworthy players in the team’s pipeline that should give fans a little bit of excitement in the near future, but the reality is the Kraken are far from being legitimate threats for the Stanley Cup, and if they want to change that, they’re going to have to sell, hopefully sooner than later.