Draft and develop is the most common way to win in the salary-cap NHL, and with eight of the past 11 playoff MVPs being homegrown, that hasn’t changed.
But the four teams left vying for the Stanley Cup this spring – the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators in the East and Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks in the West – all made a handful of significant trades to get to this point. As much as general managers complain that it’s hard to make deals because of the cap, Pittsburgh’s Jim Rutherford, Ottawa’s Bryan Murray and Pierre Dorion, Nashville’s David Poile and Anaheim’s Bob Murray have shown a knack for getting good ones done.
Sometimes the trades have been with each other, with mutual benefit or close to it. Maybe their success will show that trades aren’t so bad or difficult after all.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
No team in the NHL has benefited more from big trades than defending-champion Pittsburgh.