NHL Playoff Push: How two bubble teams approached trade deadline

With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, focus turns to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the final six weeks of regular season play that will decide who gets there.

So, we’ll begin looking at the playoff push with more frequency, analyzing upcoming schedules and key head-to-head matchups. But first, we’ll take a look at the standings today, specifically at the two teams currently sitting in the second wild card spot in each conference, and how wildly differently they approached the trade deadline…one as a still-rebuilding team within an Eastern Conference that was comparatively quiet, the other a defending champion bolstering its roster in a way we’ve never seen, among a Western Conference that was buying up all the assets.

Detroit Red Wings

At the 2023 NHL trade deadline, the Red Wings sat five points out of a playoff spot with five teams to crawl over and were on a four-game losing streak, including back-to-back losses against an Ottawa Senators team ahead of them in the standings. The Wings decided to largely stand pat at the deadline and see how things played out.

Detroit went on to lose 14 of its last 21 games, including their last five in a row, and finished 12 points out.

This season, Detroit sat in the second wild card spot on deadline day, but had lost three in a row with the New York Islanders breathing down their necks. Wings GM Steve Yzerman again decided to take a pass on the trade action, seeing capable players within his own organization to call upon for depth reasons. The Wings then dropped a 4-0 decision in Arizona on Friday night and a 5-3 decision in Vegas on Saturday. Now they’re tied with the Islanders, who have won six of their past seven games, have a more experienced lineup, and also were quiet at the trade deadline.

Yzerman said the idea of paying a first- or second-round pick, or top prospect, for a depth addition or rental player never appealed to him and that most of the trade action saw players going to the top contenders out West. The Red Wings clearly see a path to the playoffs with what they have, though they have to keep in mind that they’re still building this thing.

“It’s taken time and I don’t have a set timeline for it and I can’t give anybody one,” Yzerman said after the deadline. “It’s progressing and I’m pleased it’s progressing. Like everyone else, I wish it was going faster and we’re doing our best to expedite the process but it’s just taken time. I’m happy with the group of kids we have coming along in our organization and our team this year I’m really pleased with the play and the improvement we’ve made as a team this year.”

Vegas Golden Knights

They don’t conduct business like any other team, but the aggressive and creative ways the Golden Knights approach the trade market should be commended. When they see a player available they like — or even get a whiff someone could be attainable — GM Kelly McCrimmon and Co. throw caution to the wind, step up to the plate and take big cuts. That’s why they keep making the biggest headlines on the player transaction front.

“We pay, I think that’s part of it. We’ve made some good deals for other teams as well,” McCrimmon said after getting Anthony Mantha, Noah Hanifin and, finally, Tomas Hertl out of nowhere on the last day of trading.

Vegas went into trade deadline day holding the final playoff spot in the West, losers of four straight and nine of 11. Some teams may look at that and think twice about activating at the deadline. Vegas, with $9.5 million in LTIR space legally available to use, saw the rest of the Western Conference’s contenders bulking up and went all-in in a different way. While rentals moved to Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg, Vegas’s biggest move, in fact, was for a player on a long-term contract.

“There’s a few misnomers out there,” McCrimmon said on The Jeff Marek Show. “We’re aggressive, I don’t think we’re reckless at all. Regardless of what your strategy is, it’s only successful if you make good decisions.”

McCrimmon compared their approach to the Tampa Bay Lightning, although they became contenders in different ways. The Lightning built from the ground up through the draft and, when those players matured, management leaned into adding the types of players who best complemented the core. That leads to trades such as Brandon Hagel for two first-rounders and two prospects, or Tanner Jeannot for five picks including a first-rounder, and a prospect. Hagel, especially, has taken off since coming to Tampa Bay.

The Golden Knights have been masters of the market since the expansion draft when they used that leverage to acquire draft picks all over the place in return for taking a certain player, or not taking another player. They expected to build through the draft, but when that inaugural team went to the Stanley Cup Final, everything had to be recalibrated. They’re aggressive, not careless, and deserve credit for their creativity in usage of salary retention in trades, and how they turn over their draft picks. Only one first-round prospect of theirs remains in the organization today, but Vegas arrived at the 2024 trade deadline with a draft grid nearly full of picks — so they threw some of them around when a) the market was ripe and b) they had the cap flexibility to team build.

“We drafted in the first round last year as the Stanley Cup champion, which has only been done three times in the last 10 years so I think that speaks to decisions being made responsibly,” McCrimmon said. “We hang on to our draft picks dearly. We don’t just toss them out flippantly. If we’re going to use them we try to make sure we get real good value for them.”

Stone was injured again, with a lacerated spleen until at least the end of the regular season and you can bet the NHL is checking in on that. As unfortunate as that injury is to the team and player, it opened the door for more of that Vegas creativity and they singlehandedly made the trade deadline exciting.

“The flip side is to have $9.5 million in LTIR space as a GM and sit on your hands and I don’t think that’s doing our job the way that we should.”

It hasn’t always worked for Vegas and they’ve had to salary dump the likes of Max Pacioretty and Marc-Andre Fleury for less than market value in the past. And, one day, the Golden Knights should feel the other end of all this buying and descend on the same kind of downslope the Lightning seem to be in now. Heck, Vegas already missed the playoffs two years ago and currently sits eighth in the West. Hertl is still out with injury too, so there’s no guarantee all these pieces will click come playoff time.

Like the LTIR rule or not, no one approaches trades quite like McCrimmon and the Golden Knights. They’re finding the value, figuring out a path to get it, and creating headlines both positive and negative. This is all good for entertainment — if we wish the NHL was more like the NBA on the transactions front, the reaction to Vegas’ dealings shouldn’t be to figure out how to shut it down.

A lot of teams would have looked at recent play and withdrawn somewhat from the action. But Vegas, still with an eye on next season and beyond, went all in like no other. And to that, we say, Bravo.

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