Atlantic Division teams fill needs at 2022 NHL Trade Deadline

TORONTO --To understand the quality of talent brought in by the top four teams in the Atlantic Division prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday, consider some of the prominent players who were added.

Mark Giordano was acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Seattle Kraken. Giordano won the Norris Trophy in 2019 as the best defenseman in the NHL while playing for the Calgary Flames and is expected to fill a top-four role.
Claude Giroux, a forward with 900 points (291 goals, 609 assists) in 1,000 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, joins a Florida Panthers team that already features top-end forward talent like Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart. Veteran defenseman Ben Chiarot, acquired from the Montreal Canadiens, will play valuable minutes while Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad recovers from a lower-body injury. Ekblad is week to week.
The Boston Bruins, in need of help on their blue line, traded for puck-moving defenseman Hampus Lindholm from the Anaheim Ducks and immediately signed him to an eight-year, $52 million contract.
And the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning shored up their forward depth by trading for wings Brandon Hagel from the Chicago Blackhawks and Nicholas Paul from the Ottawa Senators.
It was the perfect example of one-upmanship, NHL style. One team makes a move, the next one tries to better it. Or so it seems.
"It just looks like the Atlantic's one big arms race and everybody's trying to get that extra edge, whatever they think that is," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Monday. "Sometimes getting the edge is doing nothing and sometimes the edge is going out and getting players. Looks like everybody in the Atlantic decided it was time to go get guys.
"It should make for a fun final 20 games of the year and an exciting (Stanley Cup) playoffs."
Fun? Maybe for the Atlantic Division team that survives the first couple of rounds of the postseason. For the others, after stockpiling skill for the stretch run and into the playoffs, falling short will bring its share of agony and disappointment.
And what arguably is the strongest division in the NHL, there will be pain.
Keep this in mind: Florida (No. 3), Tampa Bay (No. 4), Toronto (No. 8) and Boston (No. 9) each was among the top 10 in NHL.com's most recent Super 16 rankings. Given how all four augmented rosters were already strong, it will make for a fierce race the rest of the way.
The Lightning, with their back-to-back titles, hold the edge in championship pedigree, and Cooper has learned that it takes a combination of hustle and muscle to win the Cup. Hagel adds offensive flair, having scored 21 goals in 55 games for the Blackhawks, and Paul is known for his grit along the boards that creates space for his teammates.
"We've identified what we feel we need to make a run," Cooper said.
The Panthers, Bruins and Maple Leafs probably feel the same way.
Florida, which has qualified for the playoffs three times in the past 20 seasons, has scored the most goals in the NHL (254) and has the least number of losses (14) in the division. Its success has been noticed around the League by players like Giroux, who waived his no-trade clause to join the Panthers.
"When you watch this team, it's fun and players see that and want to be a part of it," Florida general manager Bill Zito said.
Boston was seeking defensive help for much of the season and took a big step in landing Lindholm, who scored 222 points (57 goals, 165 assists) in 582 career games with Anaheim.
"You got a player in Hampus that is going to help us impact our team not only now, but moving forward," Bruins GM Don Sweeney said. "Having him signed in an area where we thought we could help our group, even though they've played well."
Toronto also addressed a need on its blue line with the acquisition of Giordano, who has scored 532 points (149 goals, 383 assists) in 1,004 NHL games with Seattle and Calgary. The 38-year-old is reunited with Maple Leafs defenseman TJ Brodie, his former partner with the Flames.
Defensive depth was a priority for Toronto and comes at the ideal time after GM Kyle Dubas said Monday that defenseman Rasmus Sandin will be out "for the foreseeable future" because of a knee injury. Dubas added that pursuing a prominent defenseman was the plan even before the other Atlantic Division contenders made their moves.
"Certainly you go into every season, every trade, knowing you're competing against those other teams and you can expect every team is going to do all they can to improve themselves," Dubas said.
The Maple Leafs did not acquire another goalie, however.
Talks with the Blackhawks regarding goalie Marc-Andre Fleury did not materialize, and Fleury was traded to the Minnesota Wild. Jack Campbell is out with a rib injury and there is no timetable for his return. Petr Mrazek, who is 10-6-0 with a 3.48 goals-against average and an .884 save percentage, cleared waivers Monday. Erik Kallgren, a rookie, has started the past three games, his first career NHL starts, and is 2-1-0 with a 2.32 GAA, a .930 save percentage and one shutout.
Goaltending is the area where the Lightning and the Panthers have the edge in postseason experience; Andrei Vasilevskiy has helped Tampa Bay win the Cup the past two seasons. Sergei Bobrovsky has won 30 games with the Panthers this season and has played 41 NHL playoff games. Campbell has played seven.
As for the Bruins, they are sailing into uncharted waters. Their goalie tandem of Linus Ullmark and rookie Jeremy Swayman has never started an NHL postseason game, a reality that Sweeney said does not intimidate him whatsoever.
In such a tight division, you can't be. And he knows it.
"You've got two goaltenders that are going into the stretch run and the playoffs for the first time," Sweeney said. "Let's just saddle up."
In the Atlantic Division, it should make for a wild ride.