Arizona Coyotes' deadline trades working well for all sides
It will take more than a few months — perhaps even a couple of years won't be enough time — for a verdict on which moves at the 2015 NHL trade deadline were hits and which missed the mark entirely.
After all, pieces swapped could keep rotating to alter the initial returns, and, in a league monitored by a salary cap, that context matters.
The final four teams in contention for the Stanley Cup (the Blackhawks, Ducks, Lightning and Rangers) probably deserve the most attention in how they addressed their rosters to make their respective pushes to the conference-final stage, but the Coyotes have a place in this conversation, too.
Not only are two of their trading partners still playing, but their changes at the deadline were designed to prop up a rebuild that the team hopes has the potential to deliver contender status within this decade.
So the grades are incomplete, but the progress reports are starting to form. And at this point, they flatter the majority.
Actually, the deal that favors the Coyotes the most is the one they did with the Blues — shipping veteran defenseman and soon-to-be free agent Zbynek Michalek to St. Louis in exchange for prospect Maxim Letunov. The third-round draft pick included in the transaction remained with the Coyotes once Michalek played for the Blues.
No doubt Michalek was a helpful hand on the Blues' back end, but the team bowed out in the first round in what's become a pattern of early exits after impressive regular seasons. The Blues' rental acquisition didn't give them the edge they were missing, while the Coyotes logged potential for a player who may have walked for nothing in the summer.
That same scenario was in play with center Antoine Vermette, another unrestricted free agent at season's end. And the Coyotes seemed to maximize his value as a rental by prying a first-round pick in this year's draft out of the Blackhawks while also nabbing defensive up-and-comer Klas Dahlbeck, whose initial scan by the Coyotes was a positive one.
The pick will be a late first-rounder with Chicago in the final four, but it's still another early grab.
Although Vermette has scored only once since switching jerseys, he was added for depth and that's exactly what he's providing. What's more, his faceoff win percentage (59.6) ranks second in the playoffs among active players.
His boost to the Blackhawks actually appears similar to the lift defenseman Keith Yandle has given the Rangers. Yandle's impact in the playoffs hasn't been flashy, but he's been a reliable feature of the top-six who can work the power play. His best contributions may be yet to come considering he's under contract for one more season.
And that's why this trade might be the toughest to handicap this early.
The 2015 second-round pick the Coyotes absorbed in the deal will also be late, and it's likely the first-rounder they take in 2016 won't be in the top 15. But who knows the value these players could end up having?
It's also difficult to project how much defenseman John Moore and winger Anthony Duclair will help.
Duclair recently was named the Canadian Hockey League Player of the Week for six points in three playoff games — an honor earned by the likely No.1 pick Connor McDavid in three of the previous four weeks — but anointing Duclair the coup of the trade is premature.
Seeing this rebuild through will take time and patience.
Sizing up these deals is no different.
Reach The Heat Index at sarah.mclellan@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8276. Follow her at twitter.com/azc_mclellan.