Colorado Comes Out On Top in NHL Trade Wars

Imagine the NFL draft and baseball’s winter meetings rolled into one 24-hour frenzy of cell phone calls, panic buying and frenzied selling. That’s the swap meet known as the NHL trading deadline.

Most years, there is nothing comparable in pro sports, as players are wheeled and dealed as if they were used cars, with Stanley Cups won (or lost) in a flurry of transactions often made out of desperation. A year ago, nearly 50 players, or nearly two entire rosters, changed hands at the deadline.

Mostly because some contenders pulled the trigger on major deals before the trading deadline (Colorado for Ray Bourque, Dallas for Sylvain Cote and Dave Manson), there wasn’t as much deadline-day dealmaking this year. Nearly half of the dozen trades were pulled off by one club, Pittsburgh -- a team desperate to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

But that doesn’t mean the NHL’s balance of power didn’t shift, even if this year’s trades were significant more for their quality (Alexander Mogilny, Tom Barrasso, Ron Tugnutt) than their quantity.

Here’s who might have won -- and who lost -- in the days leading up to deadline day:

WINNERS

COLORADO: Don’t think one player can make a difference? Then compare the re-energized Ray Bourque Avalanche to the pre-Bourque Avs. The Penguins made a deal like this in 1991 for Ron Francis, and it only won them two Stanley Cups.

DALLAS: No, they didn’t make any deadline trades except to add Joel Bouchard, but they made a huge move earlier by adding Cote and Manson. Better yet, the two will be used to coach Ken Hitchcock’s system once the playoffs start.

NEW JERSEY: So Mark Messier was only a mirage. They added Mogilny and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov without gutting their roster or their minor league system.

PITTSBURGH: Tom Barrasso for Ron Tugnutt? That’s addition by subtraction -- and by addition, too. How disliked had Barrasso become in the Penguins’ locker room? When his father died, Barrasso wouldn’t shake the hand of a sympathetic team employee who was offering his condolences.

BUFFALO: Beat several teams to Doug Gilmour and got Chris Gratton, too. If only Dominik Hasek resembled the Dominator again.

ST. LOUIS: Did nothing on draft day, and that’s the point. General manager Larry Pleau talked trade with 21 teams before deciding to stand pat with what might be the Stanley Cup favorite. Pleau told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “These guys have played tremendous hockey. I was not going to do something just to do something.”

LOSERS

OTTAWA: If Barrasso can play like 1991 and 1992, Senators GM Marshall Johnson will be saluted for his bold move. The trouble is, Barrasso hasn’t much played like that since ... well, 1991 and 1992. Players like Bourque can substantially improve a team’s chemistry even if they don’t contribute much on the ice. Players like Barrasso, by contrast, can be disruptive with their criticism and irritability. This is the kind of trade that can win a Stanley Cup -- or get a general manager fired.

PHILADELPHIA: Talked and talked and talked, yet did nothing, even with Eric Lindros’ health in question again. A few months ago, they had the best record in the Eastern Conference. Now, it might be an upset if they get past the first round.

IN THE MIDDLE

PHOENIX: Was interested for months in trading Keith Tkachuk, only to do what most of their players wanted by keeping their captain. But did it miss a chance to deal holdout Nikolai Khabibulin?