Ducks Gameday: Trade Deadline Recap

The trade deadline is usually a little boring (or mildly infuriating) as a Ducks fan, as the team usually doesn't make many exciting moves around this time.

I was a little surprised this year that we actually have something to talking about. Here are all of the trade deadline moves Anaheim made...

TEAM	PLAYER/COMPENSATION	TEAM	PLAYER/COMPENSATION
	March 2
Ducks	D Korbinian Holzer	Maple Leafs	D Eric Brewer Fifth-round draft pick
	March 2
Ducks	F Michael Sgarbossa	Avalanche	D Mat Clark
	March 2
Ducks	D James Wisniewski 2015 third-round pick	Blue Jackets	F William Karlsson F Rene Bourque 2015 second-round pick
	March 2
Penguins	D Ben Lovejoy	Ducks	D Simon Despres
	Feb. 28
Ducks	W Tomas Fleischmann	Panthers	W Dany Heatley 2015 third-round pick

What's most surprising about these moves is just how much addition by subtraction that the Ducks were able to pull off. Dunping Heatley, Bourque, and Brewer alone is a success. Sgarbossa for Clark is strictly an AHL moves, as is the acquisition of Holzer. At least I'm hoping Holzer is an AHL move, because his numbers don't reflect NHL caliber.

The big surprise of the day was welcoming back Wisniewski, as it appears he's finally back from the Island Getaway the Ducks sent him on in 2010...

Bringing him back in exchange for Bourque seems pretty genius, but obviously the real loss to Anaheim and eventual likely payout for Columbus will be William Karlsson, who presumably has some great playing days head of him.

There's something to be said about Tomas Fleischmann's success under Bruce Boudreau on the Washington Capitals, but I'm a bit skeptical that we'll see his return to form in Anaheim. I'm more excited that we're free from Heatley, and at that we were able to get a servicable NHLer in Fleischmann, despite my skepticism about his potential. Anaheim takes on a bit of a cap hit with Fleischmann, but he's a free agent come the off-season so the impact is minimal.

I might be most excited by the acquisition of Despres, which seems like a baffling move on Pitsburgh's part. Lovejoy isn't the worst defensemen in the league, but he's faltered in Anaheim. Despres has nothing but upside, and he's been doing great with the Pens despite being underutilized. It'll be a bummer to lose Lovejoy's great off-ice personality, but Anaheim just made a very big on-ice improvement.

Keep in mind that Anaheim also dealt Devante Smith-Pelly to Montreal in exchange for Jiri Sekac not too long ago, but probably far enough away from the deadline that discussing it here is a old news.

At any rate, I think this is a much more successful trade deadline for Anaheim than any in recent years.

How do you feel?

Gameday

Ducks @ Coyotes

Tuesday, Mar 3, 2015, 6:00 PM PST

Gila River Arena

Prediction

Lovejoy wins the Norris Trophy with Pittsburgh.