Eastern Conference GMs not rushing to match Hurricanes blockbuster

The countdown to the trade deadline heated up last week when the Carolina Hurricanes swung a blockbuster deal to land both Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche and Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks. 

The Hurricanes, who sit second in the Eastern Conference, sent forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury, as well as a second-round pick in this year's draft and a fourth-rounder in 2026, to the Avalanche in the deal. The Blackhawks reclaimed a third-round pick for this year's draft in exchange for Hall and eating half of Rantanen's salary.

The move sent shockwaves across the league, but with plenty of time still remaining before the March 7 deadline, it does not appear rival general managers will rush their moves in an attempt to match the Hurricanes. 

"In the meantime, the question is how does Carolina’s blockbuster impact the rest of the Eastern Conference?" TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun said Tuesday on Insider Trading. "I reached out to the GMs of all the top Eastern teams and the answer was unanimous: They all said that, no, they don’t think Carolina’s move will change or impact their plans at the deadline. 

"Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving says he doesn’t believe that it does for his team. Of course, there’s a danger in knee-jerk trades, as he says.

"Panthers GM Bill Zito says ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is not the way teams operate. He mentioned the Cup Champions have a plan they’ve been working on all year that they keep looking at and they’re going to stick with that. 

"I got similar answers from Chris Patrick in Washington, Tom Fitzgerald in New Jersey, and [Tampa Bay's] Julien Brisebois, who was more succinct and just said “No”, when I asked him that. 

"Where do they go from here? We know the Leafs want a centre and potentially a third-pairing defenceman. The two Florida teams want to upgrade their D, the Devils want a centre and the Caps want a top-nine winger.

"They will trade, but not because of Carolina."

The Hurricanes picked up their first win since the trade on Tuesday with a convincing 4-0 victory over the New York Rangers with Rantanen and Hall both posting an assist. Carolina is seven points back of the Washington Capitals for first place in the Eastern Conference with one more game played. 

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston added that Hurricanes may also still be active in the trade market in the weeks to come. 

"One of the interesting things as we emerge from the smoke of that blockbuster is the fact that the Hurricanes still have five weeks before the deadline and they intend to use that period of time to continue shopping for upgrades," Johnston explained. "I’ll point out that in the series of moves they made on the weekend, they lost a depth centre in Jack Drury who wasn’t replaced, so perhaps they’ll look to upgrade.

"There’s one area though that I don’t think they’re in the market for and that’s goaltending. Earlier in the year they went through an awful stretch of injuries. Frederik Andersen, among others, were out, and at that time general manager Eric Tulsky did look at the goaltending market but they didn’t end up making a move.

"Now with Andersen back healthy, there’s a feeling that the team is headed in the right direction. Unless there’s an injury or a surprise player available around the league, I think Carolina is fine with what they have in net moving forward."

Hall was listed at No. 30 on the latest TSN Trade Bait board posted last week before the blockbuster deal. With him removed the list as follows: