Down Goes Brown's Weekend Review: Buyers and Sellers on Trade Deadline Day

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

(Editor's note: Sean McIndoe looks back at recent play in the NHL and the league's biggest storylines in his weekend review. You can follow him on Twitter.)

Welcome to the only Monday morning anyone will be happy to see all year.

At least, I hope it's Monday morning. Things move fast on trade deadline day, and if you're only reading this in the early afternoon then half of what you're about to see will be obsolete. If it's Monday evening, forget it. (But feel free to read on, then tell me how wrong I was about everything.)

After an unusually quiet run up to deadline week, we finally saw some action over the weekend. Stan Bowman got his shopping done early, landing Jets captain Andrew Ladd in a major deal on Thursday and then stocking his roster with reinforcements by adding Dale Weise, Tomas Fleischmann and Christian Ehrhoff.

The Ladd deal was pricey, coming at the cost of a first-round pick and a top prospect, but the Hawks are clearly in win-now mode and it's a testament to Bowman's cap management skills that he had room to add as much as he did without being forced to pay someone to take Bryan Bickell's deal off his hands. (Of course, if he did find a taker for Bickell's deal today, he could add even more, which has to be a scary thought for the teams below.)

Other deals soon followed. The Panthers were a mild surprise as the next team to load up, making three deals on Saturday to bring in Jiri Hudler, Terry Purcell and Jakub Kindl. The Penguins rolled the dice on Justin Schultz, who'd never lived up to expectations in Edmonton but could give Pittsburgh's powerplay a nice boost. The Blues added some goaltending depth by sending a pick and a prospect to the Oilers for Anders Nilsson, and the Sharks did the same by landing James Reimer.

That set the stage for Sunday's big deal, which saw the Hurricanes send captain Eric Staal to the Rangers for two second-round picks and prospect Aleksi Saarela. It's yet another big midseason move for the Rangers, who've made a habit of making these sorts of deals over the years. This one came relatively cheap—they didn't give up a first-round pick, and Saarela is a good prospect but far from a sure thing—and the Hurricanes retained half of Staal's salary to make the dollars work.

So are any names left on the market? Not as many as you'd like if you're a TV producer putting together a full day's worth of coverage, but deadline day is always busy. Several teams still haven't made moves, or at least not the kind of moves they'd like to, and there are always a few unexpected names that shake loose in the final hours. One way or another, today should be busy.

To mark the occasion, we'll dispense with the usual power rankings this week. Why bother, really, given that both the league's best and worst teams figure to look a lot different by the end of the day. Instead, let's borrow the format to take a look at the remaining buyers and sellers under the most pressure as the clock ticks down.

The five contenders with the most work to do today.

Now that Bowman and the Hawks have set the goalposts, the league's other top contenders have some work to do to catch up—or to explain to frustrated fan bases why they chose not to.

5. Washington Capitals

On the one hand, they're already an excellent team—one that would go into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's prohibitive favourite even if they didn't add anyone at all. On the other, the entire season has been played under a cloud of "Yeah, but…" as fans wait to see whether this is all just a setup for yet another chapter of playoff heartbreak. This is quite possibly the best team in franchise history, and that makes the question of how big a move to make a tricky one.

So what do you do if you're Brian MacLellan? Adding Mike Weber last week was a depth move, but he doesn't qualify as a major piece and the loss of John Carlsson to the IR and last night's Brooks Laich trade creates enough cap room to add something. The Caps were heavily rumoured to be in on Ladd, which suggests that one of the other top wingers could be a fallback.

The team is good enough that MacLellan could probably get away with standing pat, using the old "Don't want to disrupt the room" standby. You'd figure that Caps fans, antsy as they are, would accept that today. But check with them in June—or earlier—and they may have a different view.

4. Los Angeles Kings

They've added Rob Scuderi, but you'd figure they're not done yet. No GM has had more deadline success than Dean Lombardi, who has twice pulled off major trades that helped pave the way to Stanley Cup wins. Last year's Andrej Sekera deal didn't work out so well, and Lombardi doesn't have a first rounder or much cap space to work with. They already picked up Kris Versteeg, but the Kings may feel pressure to do something more, especially if we see reinforcements headed to our next team…

3. Anaheim Ducks

Bob Murray made four trades in January, although only the Carl Hagelin/David Perron deal was notable. Since then, it's been all quiet. They've got plenty of cap space, although as an internal budget team that isn't especially important. Given how hot the team has been in recent weeks, Murray may not want to shake things up too much, and he's been reluctant to deal a top prospect like Shea Theodore, but a move or two by the Kings could force his hand.

2. St. Louis Blues

The Blues came into the season looking like a now-or-never team, one coming off a long string of regular-season success followed by playoff disappointment. With T.J. Oshie traded, David Backes on the verge of free agency, and head coach Ken Hitchcock working with a one-year extension, it felt like 2015-16 was this Blues team's last chance to break through.

The result? Another solid regular season, and another tough path out of the Central. With the Hawks loading up, can the Blues really just add Nilsson? Given all their injuries, maybe Doug Armstrong can point to some of those pending returns and call that their deadline reinforcements. But with the stakes as high as they'd appear to be in St. Louis, it would feel strange to watch the Blues sit this one out.

1. Dallas Stars

Much like the Blues, the Stars may feel like they need to respond to the Hawks' moves. There haven't been many GMs as aggressive as Jim Nill on the trade front in recent years, and he's got some cap space and a full complement of picks to work with.

And yet, the rumour mill has been surprisingly quiet when it comes to Dallas. That doesn't necessarily mean much, since sometimes the biggest deals are the ones nobody sees coming, but the Stars almost feel like the forgotten team heading into today. They'd presumably be looking for blueline help and have been linked to Hamhuis, but otherwise seemed poised for a quiet day. That wouldn't be a disaster—this is a very good team that could absolutely win the Stanley Cup as is—but a playoff loss to the Hawks would open them up to all sorts of second-guessing.

The five potential sellers with the biggest decisions to make today.

Just a few weeks ago, it looked like this year's deadline would be a lopsided one without many true sellers. That hasn't really turned out to be the case, as the playoff bubble has popped for several teams, leaving plenty of GMs looking to unload. The Sabres and Jets fall into that category, and the Canadiens probably do, too. No team has been more aggressive about stripping down the roster than the Maple Leafs, although they've already made their big moves. The Blue Jackets are reportedly looking to dump salary, with rumours of a pending Scott-Hartnell-to-Nashville deal swirling all weekend. And the Devils will probably be moving veterans, with Lee Stempniak getting some buzz.

Then there's the Coyotes. Their surprise run at a wild-card spot was a nice story, but five straight losses have put the boots to that dream. That means it's time to sell, and all eyes will be on Mikkel Boedker. The 26-year-old winger will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and with contract talks in Arizona all but dead, he'll be on the move to a contender looking for an offensive boost. Martin Hanzal could go, too.

So that's plenty of sellers. But most of those situations are fairly straightforward; things get a bit more complicated for these teams.

5. Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning aren't sellers in the classic sense—they're a Stanley Cup contender, one that presumably is looking to add for another long playoff run. But they show up on this list, anyway, because they own the day's most intriguing trade chip in Jonathan Drouin.

Drouin has yet to fully live up to expectations after being the third overall pick in the 2013 draft. He had an underwhelming rookie year last season, and was a scratch most nights during the Lightning's run to the final. He was sent to the minors midway through this year, and left the team shortly after in an effort to force a trade. The whole situation is a mess, and it's virtually certain that Drouin is done in Tampa.

The question is whether that happens today or in the summer (or, if you want to get really creative, somewhere in between). Conventional wisdom is that deals like this are easier to make in the offseason, and the Lightning could probably get a better haul by waiting. But with the chance to add immediate help for what could be the last Cup run of the Steven Stamkos era, you'd have to think it's better to take a B+ deal today than hold out for an A- in June.

Can Steve Yzerman find that sort of move? There's no shortage of suitors. Expect to see this one get done.

4. Boston Bruins

Much like the Lightning, the Bruins are playoff contenders who'll be looking to balance their current needs with the option of shipping out a major piece. In Boston's case, that's Loui Eriksson, a pending free agent who they'd still like to re-sign. There have been varying reports over just how close they are to getting an extension done, and it's still possible that Eriksson ends up signing. But if not, and if the Bruins decide to move him, he instantly becomes one of the more attractive names left in play.

Eriksson's situation isn't anywhere near as complicated as Drouin's. At 30 years old, he's a known commodity at this point, and he fits the classic short-term rental mold. He also hasn't walked out on his team, meaning the Bruins could just decide to keep him for their own stretch run, essentially "renting" him from themselves.

One possibility to keep in mind: If the Bruins do decide to move Eriksson, does that open up a spot in the lineup for them to go after (and then eventually try to re-sign) Boedker?

3. Calgary Flames

Among the more traditional sellers, there's probably no club more disappointed to be there than Calgary, an up-and-coming team that not only made the playoffs last year, but also won a round. But to the Flames' credit, GM Brad Treliving seems to understand where they are, and has already moved Hudler for futures.

The big target is defenceman Kris Russell, a second-pairing guy who has posted some less-than-inspiring numbers but has the mix of intangibles that teams love this time of year. He's an impending free agent and would be looking at a big contract, so it makes sense for the Flames to move him now. He could be the best defenceman available, and there's been talk that he could fetch a first-round pick.

Russell may not be the only Flames blueliner on the move. Although it's a longshot, some team could target Dennis Wideman. His 20-game suspension obviously complicates things, but assuming an arbitrator upholds the ban, he'll be eligible to return in mid-March and could still help a contender.

2. Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers are well on their way to yet another last-place finish. They've moved Nilsson, Purcell and Schultz, and they'd be willing to move any other depth veterans they can get a pick or a prospect for.

The bigger question is whether they finally break up the core. The organization has been talking about doing so for years, as a long line of coaches and GMs have made threats about finally shaking things up. Add Todd McLellan to that list, after last week's scathing appraisal of the roster he's working with. But the big move never happens, and while there's no denying the talent of each individual player, the mix as a whole isn't working.

So is today the day that the Oilers finally say enough is enough and move a piece like Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, or even Taylor Hall? (And no, Nail Yakupov doesn't count as a major piece anymore.) Or will we see yet another round of tinkering, followed by mumbled promises that next time they'll really get serious? We've got a half-decade of history that tells us what the answer will be.

1. Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks are an obvious seller. The bigger question is whether they realize it.

The team seems set to move Radim Vrbata, and Hamhuis probably goes, too, if he waives his no-trade clause. Ideally, that would just be the start, and the aging Canucks would finally embark on the sort of full-scale rebuild that they seem to desperately need. But will they? GM Jim Benning has sent mixed signals, and there's plenty of pessimism in Vancouver that the Canucks will find a way to screw this up.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and an NHL team can't be torn down in one. Nobody should be expecting the Canucks to do anything more than get started today. But Canucks fans will be almost as interested in what the team says as in what they actually do. For once, one of those post-deadline GM news conferences could actually turn out to be important. Does Benning come out of all of this sounding like a GM who understands what has to happen next, or is he still selling optimism and talk of staying the course? That will tell us plenty about which road the Canucks are headed down.

(And if they really don't do much of anything… yikes.)

• The weekend's best game was Sunday's Hawks/Capitals matchup, one that sure felt like a potential Cup final preview. The Hawks took a 3-2 decision.

• The Red Wings scored four third-period goals to earn a comeback win in the season's final outdoor game, beating the Avalanche 5-3 at a windy Coors Field.

• Barring a major collapse or hot streak, the Western playoff race is essentially down to the Wild and Avalanche battling for the second wild card. Nobody else is within eight points of moving in or out of a postseason spot.

• The Eastern race is a little tighter, with five teams within five points of the Penguins for the last spot. But most of those teams seem to be in selling mode, so this one could thin out fairly quickly.

• Filip Forsberg stayed hot, netting his second hat trick in three games in Saturday's 5-0 win over the Blues. The Predators have now won four straight and have a comfortable nine-point lead on the playoff bubble.

• Ottawa's Mika Zibanejad added a hat trick of his own Saturday, scoring three times in less than three minutes in the Sens' 6-4 comeback win in Calgary.

• The weekend's best goal: Rickard Rakell's OT winner against the Oilers on Friday night.

• Finally, Ilya Kovalchuk's KHL stint seems to be ending badly, opening the door for a possible NHL return. The various potential scenarios get complicated, but the Devils would have first dibs if he tried to come back next season.