Comment: The NHL saw an all-time player trade circus – did the mopeds show off even too much?

On Saturday, will show the Dallas–Colorado NHL match from 22:25. The broadcast also discusses the twists and turns of the NHL’s transfer limit.

Competition equipment in the NHL player market turned into an eye-popping frenzy during the previous couple of weeks. Especially in the mercilessly tough Eastern Conference, teams ran the player market like never before – everyone had to get something and preferably a high-profile endorsement or two.

No fewer than 62 player deals were made in the previous fifteen days, while the average for the previous ten years is 40.

It’s fair to ask, how often have high-profile player trades in the transfer window led to winning the Stanley Cup?

The salary cap era (2005- ) knows very few cases. Of course, champion teams have often made significant additions, but it has been more about depth players. Artturi Lehkonen in terms of Colorado’s championship a year ago, was a really important addition in the back line, but he is not the number one basket player either.

After Lehkonen, they emerge by Blake Coleman (2020), by Carl Hagelin (2016) and Antoine Vermette (2015) such names.

Los Angeles added to their ranks mid-season Jeff Carter’s (2012) and Marian Gaborik too (2014). For the last ten years, these are practically the only additions to the first team of the champion team in the middle of the season.

However, the New York Rangers decided to try.

In the last couple of weeks, the Blue Shirts acquired two really big players from the market: Stanley Cup winners Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko there is no need to present it more to the general public. But how such big changes affect group dynamics is undoubtedly a question that cannot be ignored.

The flow of players to the east was huge anyway.

Bo Horvat, Ryan O’Reilly, Timo Meier, Jacob Chychrun and so on. It felt like almost every presumptive playoff team in the Eastern Conference simultaneously stated that they were in here-and-now winning mode in a way that would require moving all the markers to the middle. Even youthful New Jersey did it this way.

Some of the teams, like the Islanders, haven’t even secured their playoff spot yet.

It is also worth noting that the vast majority of player transactions were so-called loans. The contract of the purchased player ends after the current season, when a heavy price is paid for one spring’s service. According to my calculations, in 37 of the 50 most significant deals, the player’s contract expires this spring.

Still, the reserve shifts got a ride: Boston’s balance was -6, Tampa’s -5 and Toronto’s -4 shifts.

Of course, there were also teams that practically did not make their move at all. Carolina, Colorado and Florida didn’t really join the arms race at all – for whatever reason. It also raises interesting questions especially for Florida and Carolina in the spring.

Carolina, for example, previously lost a star berth due to injury Max Pacioretty for the rest of the season, but the only addition to the offensive department was Jesse Puljujärvi. What kind of message did the club management send to the players who were already struggling with scoring goals in previous springs?

At the same time, in other places, the mopeds could be showing off a little too much.

It is difficult to imagine a situation where, for example, Boston would be passed in the Eastern Conference with a few back-end acquisitions. When the merciless physical manacle of the playoffs is hit, and the matches are decided by a goal difference one way or the other, the importance of an individual player does not grow enormously. In this case, culture, the whole and a strong game backbone are decisive.

Same goes for Carolina and Colorado.

I don’t think superstars like Kane and Tarasenko will just sit in the Rangers locker room. The entertainment value is dead, but from the point of view of group dynamics, the continental plates may even move dangerously strongly in such large displacements.

Still, the player market show of the last few weeks was the best in the NHL in a long time. Especially in the east, the arms race was so fierce that even with that, the charge to the first round of the playoffs is guaranteed. In the playoffs, there will be rumbling and banging in a way that has not been seen in a while.

And that’s what this hockey circus is all about, i.e. winning and entertainment. In particular, entertainment was offered here, and it’s sure to be in the spring as well!