{"id":577585,"date":"2026-04-02T14:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577585\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:58:07","slug":"every-nhl-playoff-contender-checked-a-crucial-box-for-stretch-run-except-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/577585\/","title":{"rendered":"Every NHL playoff contender checked a crucial box for stretch run \u2013 except one"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to part 7 of Daily Faceoff Stanley Cup Ingredients 2025-26. To catch you up: I\u2019ve crafted a formula consisting of seven common ingredients among recent Stanley Cup champions, using the previous 10 seasons as the sample.\u00a0You can click here for a more detailed breakdown<\/a>\u00a0of the formula and how accurately it has predicted teams going deep in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, we commenced the annual series by exploring\u00a0the (fading!) correlation between team weight and championships<\/a>. Next, we assessed how important\u00a0point-per-game scorers<\/a>\u00a0are to capturing the Stanley Cup. Then,\u00a0we examined whether elite goaltending remains as important as ever<\/a>\u00a0in the spring,\u00a0studied the link between expected goal differential at 5-on-5<\/a>\u00a0and Stanley Cups and checked\u00a0the connection between an elite penalty kill and a Stanley-Cup-caliber team<\/a>. Most recently, we revealed the absolute correlation between having players who already have rings and winning the Stanley Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next: is the Trade Deadline vital or is its impact on championships overrated?<\/p>\n

Stanley Cup Ingredient #7: TRADE DEADLINE ACQUISITIONS<\/p>\n

Passion brings out polarized opinions when it comes to sports, and the NHL Trade Deadline isn\u2019t spared. We\u2019ll see just as many fans pounding the table for their team to \u201cgo all in\u201d as we will those insisting, \u201cThe best deals are the ones you don\u2019t make.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth lies somewhere between those two adages, but if we look at what each Stanley Cup champion did at the deadline over the past decade, almost every one of them was active in trading.<\/p>\n

SeasonChampionDeadline Additions2015-16PittsburghC. Hagelin, J. Schultz2016-17PittsburghR. Hainsey, M. Streit2017-18WashingtonM. Kempny, J. Jerabek2018-19St. LouisNone2019-20Tampa BayB. Coleman, B. Goodrow2020-21Tampa BayD. Savard2021-22ColoradoA. Lehkonen, J. Manson, A. Cogliano, N. Sturm2022-23VegasI. Barbashev, J. Quick2023-24FloridaV. Tarasenko, K. Okposo2024-25FloridaB. Marchand, S. Jones, N. Sturm, V. Vanecek<\/p>\n

Stanley Cup correlation: Very Strong<\/p>\n

Nine of the past 10 champs made one or more Trade Deadline acquisitions. It\u2019s very clear that adding is important and highly recommended for GMs given its strong correlation to winning Stanley Cups. One micro-trend within the correlation that has shifted: we\u2019re seeing the top teams become more aggressive in targeting players ticketed for major roles as opposed to depth touch-ups. Whether it was Brad Marchand and Seth Jones last season, Ivan Barbashev in 2022-23 or Artturi Lehkonen in 2021-22, all these players were significant contributors during their teams\u2019 Cup runs.<\/p>\n

Looking at the teams in or within a realistic range of playoff spots now, let\u2019s refresh our memories as to who did what at the 2026 Trade Deadline.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve excluded teams that were operating as sellers or standing pat as soft rebuilders at the time and have since risen into the race \u2013\u00a0such as the Nashville Predators<\/a>. For the sake of the exercise, we\u2019re just looking at teams who saw themselves as buyers on March 6.<\/p>\n

2025-26 Trade Deadline acquisitions by playoff \u201cbuyer\u201d teams<\/p>\n

TeamAcquisitionsAnaheimJ. CarlsonBostonL. ReichelBuffaloL. Stanley, L. Schenn, S. CarrickCarolinaN. DeslauriersColoradoN. Kadri, N. Roy, B. Kulak, N. BlankenburgColumbusC. GarlandDallasT. Myers, M. BuntingDetroitJ. Faulk, D. PerronEdmontonC. Murphy, J. Dickinson, C. DachLos AngelesA. Panarin, S. LaughtonMinnesotaB. Brink, M. McCarron, N. Foligno, J. PetryMontrealNoneNY IslandersB. Schenn, O. PalatOttawaW. FoegelePittsburghS. Girard, E. SoderblomSeattleB. McMannTampa BayC. PerryUtahM. WeegarVegasR. Andersson, N. Dowd, C. Smith<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t say I\u2019ve seen the chart play out quite like this before. It seems every team in playoff contention got the memo and made sure to acquire at least one piece leading up to the Trade Deadline, from marquee additions like the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> landing Nazem Kadri to minor tinkers like the Boston Bruins<\/a> trading for Lukas Reichel. But the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> stand out as the only team among all the contenders not to add at the deadline.<\/p>\n

The Habs did acquire Phillip Danault from the Los Angeles <\/a>Kings in December, and GM Kent Hughes also made splashy trades for Noah Dobson and Zachary Bolduc last offseason, so it\u2019s not like Hughes sits on his hands. Still, Montreal had a clear need for No. 2 center and didn\u2019t fill it, likely hamstrung by failing to move Patrik Laine\u2019s $8.7-million cap hit. The Habs are one of hockey\u2019s most exciting teams, but will they fall flat in the postseason after not completing their puzzle at the deadline?<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Previous instalments of Stanley Cup Ingredients 2026<\/p>\n

Team Weight<\/a>
Point-per-game Players<\/a>
Top-10 Goalie<\/a>
Expected Goal Differential<\/a>
Penalty-Killing Efficiency<\/a>
Stanley Cup Rings<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up: Applying the formula to determine a Stanley Cup pick<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

POST SPONSORED BY bet365<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Recently by Matt Larkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to part 7 of Daily Faceoff Stanley Cup Ingredients 2025-26. To catch you up: I\u2019ve crafted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-577585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}