Top five defensemen Trade Deadline deals of the salary cap era

Credit: © Geoff Burke

With just over one month until the NHL’s trade deadline on March 8, we’ve got you covered at Daily Faceoff with at least one trade-focused story every day until Deadline Day.

Today, we look back at the best deadline deals made involving defensemen in the salary cap era.

2024 NHL Trade Deadline Countdown: 36 Days

The trade deadline always brings some interesting moves, as teams get desperate to put their rosters over the top and get that precious Stanley Cup. Sometimes it gives a team success immediately, sometimes it gives them a long-term star, and sometimes it blows up in their face and the player is gone by the summer, but it doesn’t mean it’s not fun to witness in real time.

With the deadline around the corner, I thought I’d take look at the five best trades to happen at the deadline over the next three days, looking at forwards, defensemen, and then goalies. I evaluated them based on the success of the team, the success of the player with that team, and the longevity the player had there, with my window for the “trade deadline” being the start of the calendar year on Jan. 1 of that season. Let’s dive into the honorable mentions before we begin.

Montreal acquires Jeff Petry from Edmonton for 2015 second round pick (Jonas Sieganthaler) and 2015 fourth round pick (Caleb Jones) – March 2, 2015

Washington acquires Michal Kempny from Chicago for 2018 third round pick (Linus Karlsson) – February 19, 2018

Toronto acquires Dion Phaneuf, Frederik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie from Calgary for Matt Stajan, Ian White, Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers – January 31, 2010

Dallas acquires Alex Goligoski from Pittsburgh for Matt Niskanen and James Neal – February 21, 2011

5. Pittsburgh acquires Justin Schultz from Edmonton for 2016 third round pick (Filip Berglund) – February 27, 2016

Justin Schultz has had quite the career path. He started out as a very hyped prospect when he signed with the Oilers, and it didn’t help when he had 48 points in 34 games in the AHL alongside Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle during the 2012-13 lockout. But his time with the Oilers ended up being a bit underwhelming. He was fine, but not the player they had hoped for. So when the Oilers were selling in 2016, the Penguins took a chance on Schultz as they were reshaping their blueline mid-season.

And boy, did that work out. He didn’t make for a huge impact on the Pens blueline in 2016 for that Cup win, but he was still a significant improvement over what they had before and did a great job of holding his own in his minutes. It was his 2016-17 season that where he really shined, as a plethora of injuries on the blueline forced him into a top role with the team, and along with a career-high 51 points that season, he also led the blueline in scoring in the playoffs with 13 to give Pittsburgh back-to-back Cups.

4. Boston acquires Dennis Seidenberg and Matt Bartkowski from Florida for Craig Weller, Byron Bitz and a 2010 second round pick (Alex Petrovic) – March 3, 2010

It’s weird to think of a time where the Bruins weren’t the definition of consistency in the dictionary, but in 2010, they had yet to really establish themselves as the elite team that we know today. They already had a couple playoff appearances by this point thanks to a core of Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci establishing themselves and a strong goalie tandem of Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas, but they still needed to round out the edges, especially on defense.

Enter Dennis Seidenberg. The 2010 trade deadline saw the Bruins swing a deal for him at a cheap price, and he would be the final piece to a blueline that included Chara, Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference and would turn them into a Cup contender. It wasn’t met with immediate success, as that year saw their biggest playoff disappointment in franchise history with a blown 3-0 series lead, but they more than made up for it with a Stanley Cup victory in 2011. On top of that, they got another five seasons out of Seidenberg in Boston, who became a stabilizing presence on their blueline for younger defensemen like Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug.

3. Colorado acquires Erik Johnson, Jay McClement and 2011 first round pick (Duncan Siemens) from St. Louis for Kevin Shattenkirk, Chris Stewart and 2011 second round pick (Ty Rattie) – February 19, 2011

This swap between the Avalanche and Blues came as a bit of a surprise. The signs were there, particularly with the Blues struggling for offense and hoping to make a playoff push, and the Avs having lost nine games in a row before the deal was made and looking for defense. Both teams needed something, and it worked out that they were also willing to give up what the other team needed. The Blues got an offensive defensemen in Shattenkirk and a scorer in Stewart, and the Avs got a shutdown center in McClement and a big defenseman with first overall pedigree in Johnson.

Who won this one? It’s hard to tell. Stewart scored close to a point-per-game for the remainder of 2011 with St. Louis before falling off, but McClement’s shutdown ability wasn’t quite what people thought it was when you looked under the hood. Neither draft pick amounted to much. Both Shattenkirk and Johnson had lengthy careers with their new teams, with Shattenkirk being better for less time while Johnson was more average but with Colorado longer. And then Johnson won a Cup with the Avs, but the Blues also won a Cup three years prior, albeit without Shattenkirk. Regardless, it was a swap that worked out well for both teams… at least as far as the defensemen go.

2. St. Louis Blues acquire Jay Bouwmeester from Calgary for Reto Berra, Mark Cundari and a 2013 first round pick (Emile Poirier) – April 1, 2013

Jay Bouwmeester’s deal is one that falls under the radar. He wasn’t even this biggest name sold from his former team in Calgary in 2013, as Jarome Iginla was also dealt at the deadline, and then he spent so much time in St. Louis that people forgot about the deal by the time it truly paid off. It’s one of those few deals that was a win in all regards for the Blues, and yet it’s often forgotten about.

When Bouwmeester joined the Blues, they were just at the start of their championship window, and it took just the six-game series against the Kings for the defenseman to be sold on the team and stick around by signing a five-year extension. Bouwmeester became a reliable top pair defender alongside Alex Pietrangelo for seven seasons, but year after year, the Blues just couldn’t seem to go the distance, and it looked like nothing would come of this core. It took all the way until the final year of Bouwmeester’s deal to finally win the Stanley Cup on their surprise run in 2019. His career ended abruptly after suffering a cardiac event just a season later, but they still got 565 games between the regular season and playoffs and a Stanley Cup out of his tenure.

1. Tampa Bay acquires Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller from N.Y. Rangers for Vladislav Namestnikov, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, a 2018 first round pick (Nils Lundkvist) and a 2019 second round pick (Karl Henriksson)

This list has had a few defensemen that joined their new teams and went on to be successful both in terms of winning a Stanley Cup and getting some tenure out of the player, but I don’t think any defenseman left a bigger impact on their team than Ryan McDonagh. When the Lightning acquired him in 2018, it was already a huge deal to add another elite defenseman to a group whose Cup win seemed inevitable, but I don’t think anyone envisioned the impact he’d have on the team.

You could make a case that during the Lightning’s back-to-back Cup wins in 2020 and 2021, no blueliner had a bigger impact on the team than McDonagh. That’s saying a lot considering that Victor Hedman won a Conn Smythe Trophy in the first Cup win, but there’s a reason why he excelled. McDonagh was constantly given the toughest minutes and he thrived in them, allowing Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev to dominate in easier minutes and make Tampa a tough team to beat. Oh, and the trade return didn’t cost as much in hindsight, especially considering that J.T. Miller also went to Tampa in the deal.

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