NHL trade deadline recap: Hurricanes steal top trade target from Oilers

NHL trade deadline recap: Hurricanes steal top trade target from Oilers

Hurricanes’ acquisition of Jake Guentzel headlines busy NHL trade deadline

By Ryan Mosher

CAROLINA (March 27, 2024) — The NHL’s trade deadline was action-packed with 62 players being traded in the last week before the deadline. The Carolina Hurricanes stole the show when they acquired both Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov in two separate trades.

Carolina traded Michael Bunting, prospects Vasily Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen and two conditional draft picks for Guentzel. Those two picks are first-round and fifth-round picks in the 2024 draft.

Unlike the Guentzel trade, Carolina did not give up much for Kuznetsov. The Hurricanes only sent a third-round pick to the Washington Capitals in exchange for the 2018 Stanley Cup champion.

The Hurricanes were struggling offensively before the trade deadline, but their two acquisitions have already increased Carolina’s productivity.

Guentzel has 12 points in nine games and Kuznetsov has five points in 11 games since going to the ‘Canes’. Also, Carolina has scored 46 goals in the 11 games since acquiring the two players. Only the Dallas Stars have scored more goals than Carolina in that span, with 47 goals scored.

Another trade that has proven to be successful so far has been Anthony Duclair being shipped to the Tampa Bay Lightning from the San Jose Sharks. Duclair has nine points in eight games so far and the Lightning only had to get surrender a third-round pick in this year’s draft and prospect Jack Thompson.

Thompson had stalled this year while playing with the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League, and Duclair is a proven playoff performer. This trade will cement the Lightning as a dangerous playoff matchup for whoever they play.

The Vegas Golden Knights were able to bring in Tomas Hertl from the Sharks because of the excess cap space with Mark Stone on long-term injured reserve.

While Hertl has not played for the Golden Knights yet because of a lower body injury, he will give the Golden Knights the best center combination in the NHL. Hertl had 34 points in 48 games on a bad San Jose team.

The Boston Bruins opted to not make any major trades like their rivals, but they did possibly make the most ironic trade of the deadline.

They traded for Pat Maroon from the Minnesota Wild. Maroon was a key piece in the St. Louis Blues’ Stanley Cup Finals win against the Bruins in 2019.

Bruins’ play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards, who has been highly critical Maroon in the past, commented “he’ll never lose a fight now that he’s wearing the right sweater” in a message from the Boston Globe’s Matt Porter.