December can be a boring month in the NHL. Opening-night optimism is a faded memory, the deadline is still months away, the playoff picture is jumbled and not much is happening.<\/p>\n
And then, every once in a while, we get a day like Friday.<\/p>\n
We got one of the biggest midseason blockbusters in years, with the Quinn Hughes trade to the Minnesota Wild<\/a>. We got the long-awaited Edmonton Oilers goalie trade, with Tristan Jarry coming over from the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>. Oh, and before those two deals dropped, we also found out that the Sabres might be on the verge of a front-office shakeup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other than all that, pretty quiet day.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s dig into those two big trades, with a few lingering thoughts\u2026<\/p>\n Bonus five: Quick thoughts about a monster weekend<\/p>\n 5. Midseason trades really are possible \u2013 And in the case of the Hughes deal, it even came together relatively quickly. Consider this just one more reminder that when your favorite team\u2019s GM tries to tell you that trading during the season is too hard and\/or takes months of work, he\u2019s not telling the truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4. I wish the Oilers had swung bigger \u2013 OK, maybe the Igor Shesterkin thing was never going to happen<\/a>. I\u2019m just not convinced Jarry is enough of an upgrade over Stuart Skinner. Standing pat wasn\u2019t an option, and we can assume the Oilers made as many calls as possible to see what else might shake loose. But we\u2019ve been talking about the Oilers upgrading in goal for well over a year now, and it\u2019s hard to imagine Jarry was the best option available at any point in that process.<\/p>\n One positive is that at least they made the move early enough that they still have time to readjust if it doesn\u2019t work. Whether they\u2019d have the resources and\/or cap space is another question.<\/p>\n 3. This is a great move for the Penguins \u2026 probably \u2013 Jarry was on waivers last season and went unclaimed thanks to a contract that was certifiably bad<\/a>. Now the Penguins have not only escaped from the contract but added some assets in the process. That\u2019s tidy work by Kyle Dubas.<\/p>\n The one caveat here is that the Penguins have been exceeding expectations so far this year, which means there\u2019s an element of risk on making any big moves that shake up the locker room. If the Penguins come back to earth, will this trade be to blame? No. But will we blame it anyways? We might do that, sure.<\/p>\n 2. The Hughes deal works for both teams \u2013 The Canucks did as well as they could have hoped, and maybe a bit better. You can certainly criticize all the steps and missteps that got them to a place where they felt they had to move Hughes, but once they arrived here, they played it reasonably well.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s an overpay by the Wild<\/a> by any stretch, at least assuming that Hughes will give them a fair chance at extending him<\/a>. And remember, if worst comes to worst and the Wild can\u2019t get an extension done, they could always move Hughes at next year\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n 1. Is Hughes the best young player to be traded in the cap era? \u2013 I think there\u2019s a legitimate argument. Hughes just turned 26 and already has a Norris Trophy. He\u2019s roughly the same age as Joe Thornton was when he went to the Sharks, and he\u2019d had a 100-point season but didn\u2019t become a truly elite star until he got to San Jose. P.K. Subban had a Norris when he went from Montreal to Nashville. Names like Matthew Tkachuk, Mikko Rantanen, Jack Eichel and Tyler Seguin are in the conversation.<\/p>\n Maybe the best comparison for Hughes is one that Wild fans might not love: Erik Karlsson, who was 28 and had two Norris wins when he went to San Jose in a trade that didn\u2019t work out as well as Sharks fans would have hoped. But yeah, Hughes might be a bigger star right now than any of those guys.<\/p>\n On to the rankings\u2026<\/p>\n Road to the Cup<\/p>\n The five teams with the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t love the Jarry deal, but whoo boy did they look miles better than the Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada.<\/p>\n Against the Habs last night, not so much. But I wonder how much psychological impact this trade has on the Oilers, who can at least got a few days without hearing about trade rumors now.<\/p>\n 5. Minnesota Wild (19-9-5, +10 true goals differential*) \u2013 Screw it, they\u2019re in. This is almost certainly an overreaction to the trade, and we might look back in a few months and wonder why we thought a team with the same number of wins as the Anaheim Ducks in more games was somehow a Cup front-runner. But I love blockbuster trades, and when a team swings this big then I want to reward them, even if it\u2019s only temporary. (And if it\u2019s not, you heard it here first, must credit my scoop.)<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Michael Russo with more on the trade<\/a>, Joe Smith on the reaction in Minnesota<\/a>, and Pierre Lebrun on how it all came together<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4. Tampa Bay Lightning (18-11-3, +22) \u2013 Victor Hedman is out long-term but should be back for the Olympics. Meanwhile, they get the Panthers tonight, and we know how those games have gone recently.<\/p>\n 3. Carolina Hurricanes (21-9-2, +15) \u2013 They were apparently in on Hughes, as they seem to be with just about every big name. Even after missing out, they have to feel good about him not winding up in New Jersey. For now, it\u2019s four straight wins and a bit of padding on top of the Metro.<\/p>\n 2. Dallas Stars (21-7-5, +21) \u2013 They\u2019ve lost two straight in regulation for the first time since October, and their lead over the Wild for home ice doesn\u2019t feel as secure as it once did. The good news is that the rest of the December schedule features games they\u2019ll be the favorite in. Oh, and they landed two players on this list<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1. Colorado Avalanche (23-2-7, +58) \u2013 I kind of love the idea of Hughes and Cale Makar being in the same division now. The Avs visit the Wild next weekend, by the way. There\u2019s a decent chance they\u2019ll do it on a four-game win streak, with the struggling Kraken and Jets up next.<\/p>\n *Goals differential without counting shootout decisions like the NHL does for some reason.<\/p>\n Not ranked: New Jersey Devils \u2013 The big trade we were all expecting them to make finally happened, and the Devils weren\u2019t in it. OK, so now what<\/a>?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a much harder question to answer now than it would have been a month ago. For most of the season\u2019s early weeks, the Devils felt like legitimate Cup contenders. We had them in the top five for several weeks, peaking in mid-November around the same time their record hit an impressive 13-4-1. If you went back in time and told a Devils fan back then that the Quinn Hughes deal was imminent, they\u2019d have been thrilled. We all knew where he was headed, right? (Well, at least this guy sure did<\/a>.)<\/p>\n One month later, the Devils are ice-cold, everyone is hurt or unavailable, and Hughes is in Minnesota. If the playoffs started today, the Devils wouldn\u2019t be in them. Dom\u2019s projections are a little bit kinder, but not by all that much \u2013 they have them at 58 percent to make the playoffs, but just 2 percent to win the East, and the dreaded \u201c<1 percent\u201d to win the Cup.<\/p>\n What the heck happened?<\/p>\n On the Hughes front, it\u2019s simple enough. The Devils didn\u2019t have the right pieces to tempt the Canucks, at least unless they were willing to talk about Nico Hischier, which they apparently were not. There was a reasonable chance all the talk about a Hughes brothers reunion would scare other teams away, for fear of overpaying for an extended 20-month rental, but that didn\u2019t happen. So, no Quinn for you.<\/p>\n But blockbuster trades aside, the season is unraveling in New Jersey. A lot of that is those injuries (plus the absence of Timo Meier for personal reasons<\/a>). Jack Hughes being out long-term, yet again, is an especially major piece of the story<\/a>. So are the struggles of Jacob Markstrom, who\u2019ll I\u2019ll remind you is about to turn 36 and just signed a two-year extension.<\/p>\n But this was not a team that was ever supposed to be looking up at the Flyers or Penguins or Islanders. If anything, third place in a weak Metro was supposed to be the floor, a worst-case scenario that would still give the Devils room to get themselves sorted out by April. Two months into the season, that safety net isn\u2019t there anymore. And losing to on home ice teams like the Canucks, as they did yesterday, sure won\u2019t help. Is this good?<\/a> It doesn\u2019t seem good.<\/p>\n The team is struggling. The standings are getting precarious. And the one monster trump card they had up their sleeve just got slammed down on the table by somebody else. Now what, indeed.<\/p>\n The bottom five<\/p>\n The five teams headed towards dead last and the best lottery odds for the top pick in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n Did you catch it? For the first time this year, we dropped Gavin McKenna\u2019s name from the italicized description that nobody actually reads. That\u2019s because his status as presumptive number one pick is now very much in doubt, with Corey Pronman dropping him all the way down to fourth in his latest rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5. Buffalo Sabres (14-14-4, -13) \u2013 \u00a0Today could be the day.<\/a> If you\u2019re a Sabres fan, good luck. If you know a Sabres fan, give them their space.<\/p>\n 4. Calgary Flames (13-16-4, -13) \u2013 If there\u2019s any world where the Flames climb out of the bottom five, it looks an awful lot like this:<\/p>\n They won that game in OT, their fourth victory in their last five. With the Sharks and Kraken up next, there\u2019s a path back to .500 starting to form.<\/p>\n 3. Nashville Predators (12-15-4, -24) \u2013 The Blues have a better record, but when you beat a team 7-2, you get to move ahead of them in the standings. (But it has to be 7-2. These are the rules.)<\/p>\n 2. St. Louis Blues (12-14-7, -32) \u2013 The injuries are piling up and they had a couple of ugly losses before a much-needed win over the Blackhawks. In related news, here\u2019s how the Blues and the rest of the league\u2019s sub-.500 teams can still make the playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1. Vancouver Canucks (12-17-3, -25) \u2013 The Hughes trade would seem to signal that management is giving up on the season and focusing on the future, which is of course the right call. Still, Zeev Buium looked pretty good in his debut.<\/p>\n Not ranked: Chicago Blackhawks \u2013 It\u2019s getting ugly again in Chicago. After a strong start that saw them sitting at 10-5-4 in mid-November, they\u2019ve lost 10 of 13 to fall all the way back down to fake .500. That stretch includes a pair of Norris Division losses over the weekend, as the Blues and Wings both picked up regulation wins.<\/p>\n And more importantly, Connor Bedard is hurt. It was a weird one<\/a>, and at this point we don\u2019t know how much time he could miss. That information should come today, so feel free to hold your breath if you\u2019re a fan of the Hawks and\/or Team Canada.<\/p>\n