Recent Stanley Cup champs all made Trade Deadline deals – but not epic blockbusters
Welcome to part 7 of Daily Faceoff Stanley Cup Ingredients 2024-25. I’ve developed a formula consisting of seven common ingredients among recent Stanley Cup champions, using the previous 10 seasons as the sample to study. You can click here for a more detailed breakdown of the inspiration for the formula and how accurately it has predicted teams going deep in the playoffs.
So far, we’ve explored how championships correlate to team weight, top-10 scorers, top-10 goaltenders, expected goal differential, penalty killing efficiency and Stanley Cup rings. Next, we examine the correlation between Trade Deadline activity and championships. Do you need to tinker with your roster mid-season if you want to win a Cup?
Stanley Cup Ingredient #7: TRADE DEADLINE ACQUISITIONS
Hyberbole? In sports? Never. Ha-ha. Passion brings out extreme opinions when it comes to sports, and the NHL Trade Deadline isn’t spared. We’ll see just as many fans pounding the table for their team to “go all in” as we will those insisting, “The best deals are the ones you don’t make.”
The truth lies, of course, somewhere between those two adages. If we look at what each Stanley Cup champion did at the Deadline over the past decade, almost every one of them was active in trading, and few aimed for the uber-splashy deal.
| Season | Champion | Deadline Additions |
| 2014-15 | Chicago | A. Vermette, K. Timonen, A. Desjardins |
| 2015-16 | Pittsburgh | C. Hagelin, J. Schultz |
| 2016-17 | Pittsburgh | R. Hainsey, M. Streit |
| 2017-18 | Washington | M. Kempny, J. Jerabek |
| 2018-19 | St. Louis | None |
| 2019-20 | Tampa Bay | B. Coleman, B. Goodrow |
| 2020-21 | Tampa Bay | D. Savard |
| 2021-22 | Colorado | A. Lehkonen, J. Manson, A. Cogliano, N. Sturm |
| 2022-23 | Vegas | I. Barbashev, J. Quick |
| 2023-24 | Florida | V. Tarasenko, K. Okposo |
Stanley Cup correlation: Very Strong
Nine of the past 10 champs made one or more Trade Deadline acquisitions. It’s very clear that tinkering is important and highly recommended for GMs given its strong correlation to winning Stanley Cups. But it’s just as important to note that none of the champions acquired a true star-level talent at the deadline. That partially reflects the rarity of those players shaking loose – not every year can be a Mikko Rantanen year – but it also reminds us that any team needing a superstar addition by March probably isn’t good enough to begin with. The recent champions making deadline moves were already powerhouses and made smaller deals to fortify their depth. The Florida Panthers added an experienced Stanley Cup winner in Vladimir Tarasenko and a strong dressing room presence in Kyle Okposo. Tarasenko did end up on their first line, like deadline acquisition Ivan Barbashev did for the Vegas Golden Knights the season before, but neither player was brought in expected to carry his new team on his back.
For the most part, the champs made modest moves to fulfill specific team needs – like, for example, the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020, bringing in Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow to augment their third line and penalty kill.
Looking at the teams in or within a realistic range of playoff spots, let’s refresh our memories as to who did what at the 2025 Trade Deadline. I’ve excluded teams that were operating as sellers or standing pat as soft rebuilders at the time and have since risen into the race – such as the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and New York Islanders. Same goes for the St. Louis Blues, who were in a much different position before their 10-game winning streak. For the sake of this exercise, we’re looking at teams who had buyer postures on March 7.
2024-25 Trade Deadline acquisitions by playoff “buyer” teams
| Team | Acquisitions |
| Carolina | T. Hall, L. Stankoven, M. Jankowski |
| Colorado | M. Necas, B. Nelson, C. Coyle, R. Lindgren, J. Drury, E. Johnson |
| Columbus | L. Kunin |
| Dallas | M. Rantanen, M. Granlund, C. Ceci |
| Detroit | P. Mrazek |
| Edmonton | J. Walman, T. Frederic, M. Jones |
| Florida | B. Marchand, S. Jones, N. Sturm, V. Vanecek |
| Los Angeles | A. Kuzmenko |
| Minnesota | G. Nyquist, J. Brazeau |
| New Jersey | B. Dumoulin, D. Sprong, C. Glass |
| Ottawa | D. Cozens, F. Zetterlund |
| Tampa Bay | O. Bjorkstrand, Y. Gourde |
| Toronto | B. Carlo, S. Laughton |
| Vegas | R. Smith |
| Washington | A. Beauvillier |
| Winnipeg | L. Schenn, B. Tanev |
Wow. The league’s GMs really got the memo for 2025. Every single team in a contender position made at least one move. They varied in magnitude, of course. I was one of many pundits lauding the Dallas Stars as an instant Stanley Cup threat after they acquired Rantanen. The Colorado Avalanche have pretty much remade their entire team this season. But the history suggests we’ll find the 2024-25 Stanley Cup champ if we peruse the teams who tinkered minorly with their winning operations. Could that be the Winnipeg Jets, adding Luke Schenn to their D-corps and Brandon Tanev to their forward group? How about the Edmonton Oilers, who nabbed defenseman Jake Walman and grinder Trent Frederic? An already-strong recipe may need a pinch of salt but shouldn’t require an entirely new flavor profile.
Previous instalments of Stanley Cup Ingredients 2025
Team Weight
Top-10 Scorer(s)
Top-10 Goalie
Expected Goal Differential
Penalty-Killing Efficiency
Stanley Cup Rings
Next up: Applying the seven-trait formula to determine a Stanley Cup pick
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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