The NHL trade deadline is the time of the season in which organizations can make or break their year. Clubs can either dash their playoff hopes by making a mistake or they can take their time to the promised land if they choose wisely and find the best fit for their roster.
For every Ryan O’Reilly who works in Toronto, there’s Bo Horvat who flirts with the Islanders. For every John Klinberg who seems to be finding chemistry with the Minnesota Wild, there’s Tanner Ginot who arrives, is immediately injured, and plays a factor in their new team that doesn’t perform well in the postseason.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest NHL trade misses so far this year.
Bo Horvat
The New York Islanders paid their chips early and acquired one of the biggest names well before the trading deadline. Horvat has been on fire in Vancouver and the striker was on the verge of signing a huge free agency deal if he wasn’t moved and signed to a long-term contract with his new team. The Islanders stepped up and gave him a huge new deal. He has done little for them since his arrival.
Horvat seemed to be over his new team’s hump and surroundings as the regular season drew to a close, but since the playoffs began, he’s slipped back into his shell and hasn’t been among the Islanders’ most effective weapons. Of his performance so far in the series, he said, “I think I could be a lot better.” Horvat added, “I think I’m doing a lot of good things off the puck and winning against the ball and doing all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day I have to find ways to score big or get on the scoresheet, not in a 5-1 game or 5-2. I have to find ways to make it meaningful. I have to be better.”
The Islanders are hoping he can figure it out because he’s on that team now for the next eight seasons at a cost of $8.5 million a year.
Sam Lafferty
Although he wasn’t expected to play in the top six of the Maple Leafs and is more of a person with deep energy, fans in Toronto will tell you they’d like to see more of Sam Lafferty. A player acquired as part of the deal with Chicago, which also included Jake McCabe, Lafferty owns one assist and averages just over 11 minutes per game. He was fined $3,108.11 by NHL Player Safety and was a bit reckless with his plays.
There is talk that the Leafs may try to bring Michael Bunting back into the lineup and one name that could emerge to make room is Lafferty. Considering how much responsibility Bunting has, that’s not a great sign.
Jesse Polijarvi
The Carolina Hurricanes were in a few names at the deadline, but swung and missed most of the big goals. Eventually, they added some smaller names, including Jesse Puljujarvi of the Edmonton Oilers. Puljujarvi struggled to find consistent work in Edmonton and the Oilers needed cover room to land Mattias Ekholm. Carolina bore the full brunt of his $3 million max hit and two playoff appearances. He wasn’t a factor, and during his few games with the team during the regular season he was less of an impact.
This was a career in which a team was likely to experiment in hopes that a new environment would motivate a former overall fourth draft pick to better results. At this point, Puljujarvi will most likely leave the NHL next season as he will sign a cheap deal with the Hurricanes to give him another chance.
Tanner Ginot
In three playoff games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tanner Jeannot had no points. He’s an underactive player, and to make matters worse, he barely played in the regular season for the team thanks to an early injury. This is a player the Lightning gave up a lot to get and early on appears to be the biggest trade deadline misstep.
The Lightning fell 3-1 in the series to Toronto and Gano wasn’t a factor. Tampa gave up fullback Cal Foot, a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and a third, fourth, and fifth in the 2023 NHL Draft, all for a player who played 13 minutes per night and could use his arbitration rights to serve himself as an RFA in Ufa status fairly quickly.
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