Top 10 trades of 2023: The year that changed the Pacific Division’s future

Credit: Mattias Ekholm (© Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports)

How memorable was the calendar year 2023 for trades?

The Toronto Maple Leafs went all-in to land a Conn Smythe Trophy winner in Ryan O’Reilly. The Boston Bruins got excellent short-term production out of Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Bertuzzi. The New Jersey Devils loaded up in the offseason, landing Tyler Toffoli. And none of those deals makes my top 10. Heck, the New York Rangers’ high-profile trades for Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko barely make the honorable mentions.

As the eighth-seeded Florida Panthers showed us last spring, almost any playoff team can make a deep run. Perhaps that’s why we’ve seen so many contenders or wannabe contenders make aggressive moves over the past 365 days.

Here are my top 10 trades of the calendar year. Some constituted wins for one side, others benefitted both sides, and some warranted inclusion for their overall significance.

10. Senators show they’re serious about contending, snag Jakob Chychrun

Hey – just because the Ottawa Senators aren’t contending at the moment doesn’t mean they expected to be in this spot when then-GM Pierre Dorion pulled a blockbuster last winter. Days before the 2023 Trade Deadline, Ottawa landed coveted goal-scoring defenseman Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2023 first-round pick (Daniil But), a 2024 second-round pick and a 2026 second-round pick. While Chychrun’s game didn’t pop down the stretch last season, he has been mostly as advertised this season, playing more than 23 minutes a game, functioning better as an offensive presence than a defensive one, scoring at an 18-goal pace as of mid-December. He has one season left after this one at his highly reasonable $4.6 million cap hit and will be eligible to sign an extension in July. Will he want to if the Sens miss the playoffs again this season?

9. Kings create three-headed monster down the middle with Pierre-Luc Dubois trade

It was telegraphed for a while that big, physical center Dubois wasn’t going to re-sign with the Winnipeg Jets. So they found a fit with the Los Angeles Kings, who inked him to an eight-year extension at an $8.5 million AAV after trading forwards Alex Iafallo, Gabe Vilardi and Rasmus Kupari and a 2024 second-round pick for him. Interestingly enough, Iafallo, a veteran afterthought in the deal, was the highest-scoring player in the trade as of mid-Decmeber. Vilardi suffered an early-season knee injury, and while Dubois’ presence has allowed the Kings to roll three deadly lines, the others centered by Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault, Dubois’ offense has been almost non-existent so far this season. He’s on pace for easily the worst numbers of his career.

8. Kings cut ties with Jonathan Quick and load up with Joonas Korpisalo, Vladislav Gavrikov

“They did what?” In a memorable late-night transaction, the Kings turned their backs on two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender Jonathan Quick, including him in a trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets along with a 2023 first-round pick and 2024 third-round pick in exchange for goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defensive defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. Even if Quick was infuriated by the deal – he was soon flipped to the Vegas Golden Knights – the Jackets and Kings made out well here. Columbus secured a pick that it later flipped to the Philadelphia Flyers in a trade for defenseman Ivan Provorov. Korpisalo was excellent down the stretch in the regular season for the Kings before faltering in the playoffs, while Gavrikov impressed so much that the Kings extended him on a two-year pact at a $5.875 million AAV.

7. New Jersey Devils win the bidding for Timo Meier

A big, strong power forward with goal-scoring ability and just enough of an edge to his game, Meier was an extremely coveted 2023 Trade Deadline commodity. The Devils paid a fairly large price to land him from the San Jose Sharks, but GM Tom Fitzgerald did so wisely, dealing from a position of strength. Instead of coughing up top young forward prospect Alexander Holtz, Fitzgerald sold Sharks GM Mike Grier on defense prospect Shakir Mukhamadullin as the centerpiece in a deal that also brought Fabian Zetterlund, Andreas Johnsson, Nikita Okhotiuk, a 2023 first-round pick (Quentin Musty) and a 2024 conditional first-round pick (that became a second-rounder).

The Devils could afford to surrender Mukhamadullin because they had two even better blueline blue-chippers in their system in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, not to mention Seamus Casey. They also locked up Meier on an eight-year extension at an $8.8 million AAV in the summer. Tidy business, right? So why isn’t this deal ranked higher? While I have full confidence that Meier will figure it out, he hasn’t delivered what was expected of him. Including the playoffs, he wasn’t even scoring at a 30-goal pace in his first 50-plus games as a Devil through mid-December.

6. Penguins land reigning Norris Trophy winner in Erik Karlsson

In terms of sheer magnitude, this trade warrants a higher listing, but we need more time to evaluate its impact. Kyle Dubas wasted no time adding help to the Pittsburgh Penguins roster in his first offseason as their president of hockey ops and GM, then punctuated his overhaul by executing a multi-team trade bringing Karlsson to Pittsburgh, with the Montreal Canadiens acting as the intermediary to facilitate the mega-swap. The San Jose Sharks ended up with defenseman Jan Rutta, forwards Mike Hoffman and Mikael Granlund and a 2024 first-round pick in the process. The Habs landed defenseman Jeff Petry and goaltender Casey DeSmith, flipping both to other teams later in the summer. Spare parts aside, Karlsson was the prized piece heading to Pittsburgh, becoming the first reigning Norris Trophy winner to be dealt since Doug Harvey in 1961.

Karlsson’s fit in Pittsburgh looked a bit redundant on paper for a team that already had Kris Letang as a top-pair, right-shot defenseman and power-play quarterback. Karlsson has played quite well with the Pens, but is it a coincidence that their power play has ghosted this season? Possible chemistry problems there? Meanwhile, the Sharks have actually gotten nice production from journeymen Granlund and Hoffman.

If the Pens don’t end up making the postseason, we may view their Karlsson gambit differently given he still has three years left on his contract after this season, with the Pens covering $10 million of his $11.5 million cap hit.

5. Canucks send captain Bo Horvat packing for Long Island

The 2022-23 season was so unbelievably tumultuous for the Vancouver Canucks that trading their captain mid-season barely cracked their top five headline-making stories. It was a pivotal franchise shifting moment for the Canucks and the New York Islanders, however. Vancouver landed a package including Anthony Beauvillier (since traded), top Isles forward prospect Aatu Raty and, most importantly, a first-round pick that comes into play later on this top-10 list.

We can criticize the Isles and GM Lou Lamoriello all we want for being delusional and foolish to chase – and extend – a veteran on a team mired in mediocrity. I hated the deal for the Isles when it happened, and Horvat’s goal-scoring massively, predictably regressed post-trade after his unsustainably awesome first half. Nevertheless, the Isles got what they wanted. They were and are a much better team with Horvat on it and likely wouldn’t have qualified for the 2023 playoffs without that trade. This deal has worked out for both sides.

4. Canucks steal Filip Hronek from Red Wings

The Canucks and GM Patrik Allvin owned the first-rounder acquired in the Horvat deal for…30 days. In what plenty of pundits, myself included, felt was somewhat of a head-scratcher at the time, the Canucks flipped the Isles’ 2023 first-rounder (Axel Sandin-Pellikka) and their own 2023 second-rounder (Felix Nilsson) to the Detroit Red Wings for defenseman Filip Hronek and a 2023 fourth-rounder (Ty Mueller). Any confusion at the time of the trade wasn’t a knock on Hronek’s ability as a two-way blueliner; it simply seemed odd that the Canucks were seemingly reversing course after moving in the rebuild direction with the Horvat trade a month earlier.

Well, the Canucks sure look smart now, don’t they? Hronek has been a revelation, forming arguably the top pair in the NHL with Quinn Hughes this season. Hughes deserves almost all the credit for his MVP-caliber season to date, but his chemistry with Hronek has undoubtedly helped.

3. Ivan Barbashev proves a key piece of Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup puzzle

It pales in comparison to the big-ticket blockbusters listed before it, but, hey, as the likes of Butch Goring and Stefan Matteau have reminded us over the years, it’s not always the superstar additions that put contenders over the top.

Shortly before the 2023 Trade Deadline, the always-aggressive Golden Knights punted yet another one of their prospects in the name of winning in the present, sending Zach Dean to the St. Louis Blues to rent Barbashev. He was having an off year but brought a versatile package as a playmaker with an accurate shot who could play center or the wing anywhere in a team’s top nine and add a physical presence. He ended up clicking on Vegas’ top line with Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault, becoming a key cog on a championship team, and re-signed with them.

2. Red Wings bring Alex DeBrincat home

Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman accelerated his ‘Yzerplan’ beginning in the 2022 offseason. He traded for a new starting goalie in Ville Husso and made splashy free-agent additions in Andrew Copp and David Perron, among others. He followed that up with a busy 2023 offseason that in which he added the likes of J.T. Compher, Klim Kostin, Daniel Sprong, Justin Holl and Shayne Gostisbehere to the lineup. But none of those pieces brought a star-caliber ceiling. All that changed when Detroit sent 2024 first- and fourth-round picks, Dominik Kubalik and Donovan Sebrango to the Ottawa Senators for Michigan-born sniper DeBrincat, who had two 41-goal seasons and a 32-goal season to his name through age 25. DeBrincat immediately signed a four-year extension at a $7.875 million AAV.

He brought a different element of danger to Detroit’s offense right away, burying nine goals in his first seven games and providing center Dylan Larkin with the best finisher he’s ever had for a linemate. DeBrincat has since cooled significantly but remains on pace to score the most goals in one season by any Red Wing since Marian Hossa bagged 40 in 2008-09.

1. Edmonton Oilers solidify shutdown blueline with Mattias Ekholm

How much did big, rangy veteran Ekholm change the Oilers’ D-corps? After acquiring him and a 2024 sixth-round pick days before the Trade Deadline for Tyson Barrie, prospect Reid Schaefer, a 2023 first-round pick (Tanner Molendyk) and a 2024 fourth-round pick, they outscored opponents 31-10 and outchanced them 235-150 at 5-on-5 with Ekholm on the ice over the next 25 regular-season games to close out the year.

Ekholm is 33, so it’s possible his play falls off by the time he wraps up his deal in 2026, but he represents a crucial win-now asset for an Edmonton team that is way past the point of looking back. It’s now or never for Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company.

_____

Discover Betano.ca – a premium Sports Betting and Online Casino experience. Offering numerous unique and dynamic betting options along with diverse digital and live casino games, Betano is where The Game Starts Now. 19+. Please play responsibly.