6 Teams That Did the Best Business at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline

Whew...that was fun, wasn't it?

The hardcore types who hang on every movement of the transaction wire were extra excited on Friday by the proximity of the NHL's trade deadline, which came and went at 3 p.m. ET.

Stars, prospects and draft picks of all measures are changing addresses and the B/R hockey team is in on the act, too, taking a look at moves both at the deadline and in the days/weeks leading up to it to determine the teams whose work was the best of the best.

The price paid for the player(s) acquired was among the determining factors in some cases, while others focused on the quality of future assets brought in for a high-profile exit.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

The Carolina Hurricanes were Stanley Cup champions in 2006, and the afterglow was enough to tide fans over during a difficult post-parade stretch that saw the team miss the playoffs for all but one of the subsequent 12 seasons.

It's been a different story lately, though.

They've made the playoffs for five straight springs and finished first in their division in each of the past three seasons, but the revelry of 18 years ago has not been repeated. In fact, though the Hurricanes have made the Eastern Conference Final twice in the most recent half-decade, they were swept out each time.

So patience is wearing thin in Raleigh.

That was surely playing into GM Don Waddell's decision to make two significant deals for imminent unrestricted free agents in the final 24 hours before the deadline, sending four players and two picks (conditional first- and fifth-rounders) to Pittsburgh for coveted forward Jake Guentzel and teammate Ty Smith on Thursday night and then following it by getting prolific but troubled forward Evgeny Kuznetsov from Washington for a third-round pick.

The first-rounder is locked in if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup, which Guentzel and Kuznetsov have done twice while combining to produce 125 points in 145 playoff games. And given that Carolina was already second in the Metropolitan Division and eighth overall in the league without them, if they approach those numbers again another would be no surprise.

Neither Casey Mittelstadt nor Sean Walker is as big a name as Guentzel or Kuznetsov.

But that doesn't mean they wont be just as important in Colorado.

The Avalanche paid a significant price to pry Mittelstadt, a 25-year-old center out of Buffalo, shipping young defenseman and former No. 4 overall pick (2019) Bowen Byram to the Sabres. But his acquisition adds talent at a position where the team had a need, and he'll have a chance to produce in a playoff environment he's never experienced.

He'll be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in July, which means GM Chris MacFarland will have an excellent chance to retain his services for the long term.

As for Walker, he's an imminent UFA who arrives from Philadelphia for a first-rounder in 2025 and the subsequently waived Ryan Johansen, and he should plug immediately into a prime role as a mobile blue-liner on a Colorado back end that values puck movers and play makers.

The Avalanche also made a minor deal to acquire bottom-six forward Brandon Duhaime from Minnesota for a third-round pick in 2026, and while it's not the sort of move that'll prompt anyone to schedule a parade, he adds some size (6'2", 200 pounds) and disrupting ability in a fourth-line role that'll likely mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 minutes per game.

The Dallas Stars are deep and talented up front and well-positioned at goalie.

And now, their defensive corps is no slouch, either.

It's Texas, after all, so GM Jim Nill made a big move to bolster the blue line by sending a player, a second-round pick (2024) and a conditional third-round pick (2026) to Calgary to get 6'2", 193-pounder Chris Tanev along with the rights to college goalie Cole Brady.

Dallas also sent a fourth-rounder in 2026 to New Jersey for taking on 50 percent of the cash remaining on the four-year, $18 million contract Tanev signed with the Flames in 2020.

Tanev is hardly an offensive juggernaut from the back end but he's a capable shutdown-type defender who shows some alacrity when clearing the zone and triggering plays up ice. He averaged no less than 19:50 of per-game ice time during three-plus seasons with Calgary and has spiked as high as 21:45 per game across 774 NHL games.

The 34-year-old slid into a second defensive pair alongside Esa Lindell in his Dallas debut against San Jose on Tuesday, playing 26 shifts across 17-plus minutes with a plus-1 rating.

It was only one deal for Nill and the Stars, but it could be exactly the one they needed.

The Florida Panthers were a surprise participant in the Stanley Cup Final last June.

But if they find themselves there again this spring, it won't shock anybody.

The team assembled by GM Bill Zito arrived to Friday's deadline already in first place in the Atlantic Division and first overall while boasting the league's best goal differential (plus-60) and its best road record (23-8-2), too.

And now, they're even better.

Zito initially sprang into action to get veteran winner and former Cup champ Vladimir Tarasenko from Ottawa for a conditional fourth-round pick this summer and a third-rounder in 2025, which instantly adds offense to an already loaded forward group.

Though he's no longer producing at the level of the 40-goal man he was in 2015-16 or the 30-plus he netted five other times, the 32-year-old Russian did have 17 goals and 41 points in 57 games for the 28th-overall Senators and slides nicely into a Florida top six that's already got four point-per-game producers—including 45-goal man Sam Bennett.

The cherry on top came Friday in the form of winger Kyle Okposo, who arrived from Buffalo for AHL defenseman Calle Sjalin and a conditional seventh-round pick this summer.

The impact Tarasenko provides with scoring to the top six Okposo adds to the bottom six with reliable defense and prudent forechecking, not to mention veteran leadership and enough offensive presence to have scored 224 goals in parts of 17 NHL seasons.

It's not always about hunting the big game.

The Montreal Canadiens are not where they'd like to be in the overall standings, having sunk to 26th overall not too long after competing for the Stanley Cup against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the COVID-addled summer of 2021.

So it wasn't about making a deal to prepare for another playoff run this time.

Instead, the Canadiens had eyes on the future when GM Kent Hughes helped kick off trade season by sending forward Sean Monahan to Winnipeg for both a first-round pick this summer and a conditional seventh-rounder in 2027.

The former sixth overall pick (2013) had tumbled from 34 goals in 2018-19 to just eight in 2021-22 for Calgary when Montreal accepted a first-round pick to take him and the final year of a $6.375 million annual contract off the Flames' hands in the summer of 2022.

He signed a one-year deal worth $1.985 million to stay with the Canadiens last summer and had 35 points in 49 games before the Jets came calling in February, meaning Montreal snagged two first-round draft choices to be a layover in his trip from Alberta to Manitoba.

Looking ahead was also the mission on Friday when Hughes got involved again, clearing the team's goal crease by sending veteran Jake Allen to New Jersey for a conditional third-round pick and an agreement to retain half the remaining salary on a two-year, $7.7 million deal that runs through the end of the 2024-25 season.

It clears space for youngsters Samuel Montembeault, 27, and Cayden Primeau, 24, whose combined $1.89 million salary is still less than the portion of Allen's check they'll be keeping.

And whether or not they're the goalies who'll wake up the echoes, it's still an excellent portfolio of future-focused investments by Hughes and Co.

In our case, they're last because of the alphabet.

But it'd be no stretch to suggest the Vegas Golden Knights deserve a main-event slot because of their status as reigning Stanley Cup champions. It's hardly hyperbolic to say they were the team staking the biggest title claim at the deadline, too.

If all GM Kelly McCrimmon had done was pluck two-time All-Star and former first-round pick Tomas Hertl from San Jose for teenager David Edstrom and a first-round pick in 2025, it would have been a good week. And if all he'd done was that and add mammoth winger Anthony Mantha from Washington for a second-rounder (2024) and a fourth-rounder (2026), it would have been enough to draw an A from the stingiest of graders.

But considering McCrimmon did both and still got a top-pairing defenseman in Calgary's Noah Hanifin, too, while surrendering only a part-time player in Daniil Miromanov and three picks and having the Flames retain half his remaining salary, it's a slam-dunk A-plus.

The Golden Knights have been foundering thanks both to injuries and the Western Conference being a competitive bear pit, but adding three immediate contributors while sacrificing nothing from a talented core is a foolproof elixir for any lingering title hangover.

If they weren't favorites already, they got a lot closer this week.