2020 Trade 'Dead'line

[Scott-New York]

If you’re not making your team better, are you making it worse? The 2020 GHL Trade deadline was…well, dead. Just 3 deals were recorded by league offices on Monday with just 5 players finding themselves on the move. A total of 17 trades were made in the 2 weeks leading up to the deadline but very few big names changed addresses. Of the 16 teams in playoff position as of this report, over half of them were idle in that 2 week period. 3 of the top 4 teams in the POW were noticeably absent. Alaska, Colorado and Hamilton all stood pat while the defending champion, Cleveland Barons, could possibly have been the winners of the trade deadline, making 3 key moves over a four day span leading up to the deadline, bringing in Troy Stecher, Logan Couture and Brock Nelson in 3 separate deals. Hamilton may be the biggest surprise of this group as they are staring down a first round playoff match-up with the Barons. 5th place Edmonton made just one move, but it quite possibly was the blockbuster of the deadline. The Beavers acquired Jamie Benn from New Jersey in exchange for prospect, Carl Grundstrom and their 2020 1st round pick. 6th place Detroit was very active, making 4 deals, yet mostly seemed to be a seller despite their position and acquiring Max Pacioretty. 7th place Cincinnati was idle and 8th place Pittsburgh was as well. Pittsburgh is currently locked in the wild card race with Calgary, Milwaukee and Toronto. The 4 teams are separated by just 3 points, yet Calgary was the only one to make a move, bringing in veteran, Joe Thornton. The top two teams in the Campbell conference were slightly more active with top dog, Boston, making a single deal acquiring shutdown defenseman, Ron Hainsey, while Philadelphia made a depth move, adding bottom six forward, Johan Larsson. Halifax and Quebec, 3rd and 4th respectively, were both idle while 5th place Baltimore improved their goaltending by adding Phoenix Copley. Neither 6th place, Hershey or 7th place, Montreal were active. The 8th place Cornwall Crusaders, however, made a big splash when they acquired Philipp Grubauer and Mattias Ekholm from Adirondack on Feb. 13th. The Syracuse Blazers, who sent Pacioretty to Detroit seemed to be a seller, despite being only 2 points out of a wild card spot. On the flip side of the coin, a few sellers did well for themselves. The Adirondack Aces collected 8 draft picks over the two week span by our count. New Jersey and Detroit were the only two teams that found a way to pry 1st rounders out of the clutches of their trade partners grasps. The biggest mover was the Suffolk Stampede, who were involved in 7 total deals, just edging out Adirondack’s 6. There are many reasons why teams may have been absent at the trade deadline. Maybe some teams felt they were completely satisfied with their chances to win the cup or maybe they simply couldn’t close a deal. Maybe teams just weren’t willing to meet the asking prices they were confronted with. There seemed to be an attitude around the league that teams were merely vying for 2nd place. No matter what teams reasons were for being inactive at the deadline, we still can’t help asking again. If you’re not making your team better, are you making it worse?

[Joe-Adirondack]

Well I actually picked up 12 picks since January 13th without giving up any future picks ..... I tried to make things work with Jumbo Joe but after 12 games the decision was made to pull the plug and hit the reboot button .... the Aces ♠️are very happy to welcome to the rebel green mountains of the Adirondacks ..... former 1st round picks Erik Brannstrom and Lias Andersson who have loads of potential ...also the big guy Tage Thompson will hopefully become the power forward that the Aces ♠️fan will love to embrace .....having 3 2nd and 3rd round picks will get this reboot going..... resigning JT Miller and making some smart free agent signings will go along way towards a team the mountain Aces ♠️Fans will be proud of

[Scott-New York]

I only counted the final 2 weeks leading up to the deadline but definitely took notice of the youth and picks ADK ♠️ added to the roster. A successful seller to be sure.

[Chris-Suffolk]

I really needed a few more pieces to make a run. Unfortunately, I didn't have much left to trade in order to get those pieces. I also need help from other teams in order to climb. That was the reason I decided to sell. Admittedly, I am pretty surprised at the lack of deadline deals that came across the GHL wire. I am very surprised, no one knocked on Suffolk's door for Goaltender Pekka Rinne. I know he has a large price tag, but that would have been taken care of in any trade. Ony 3 teams inquired about Hainsey. He had a better card than Dumoulin, and was a cheaper acquisition. Brock Nelson only had one party interested. That's all there was for me. But, I made the same interpretation as Scott-NY, there are teams that needed to better themselves, but didn't. There are teams that have UFA's that are going to walk away at season's end for free, whom easily couldn't gotten their respective team a Draft pick or Prospect. And, as always, there are absentee owners who do little to help themselves.

The silver lining for Suffolk is, that I only moved two pieces and my team still has an outside chance to climb into that 8th spot, or at the very least hurt other teams chances. Having Suffolk in the shadows is going to keep the bottom 4 teams honest. They're gonna have to keep their lineups healthy and wont be able to rest guys down the stretch. That in itself, could end up costing teams some injuries as we head to the wire.