How the Recent Stanley Cup Champions Found Key Additions at the Deadline

We’re entering the final days ahead of the 2026 NHL trade deadline. This is the last chance for the league’s aspiring managers to take a swing and bring in a potential game-changer before the home leg of the campaign begins.

The trade market has been fairly quiet so far, with no significant movement in the weeks leading up to Friday’s close. However, there are rumors that some familiar veterans are looking to change their uniforms. Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos highlighted players like Robert Thomas, Elias Pettersson, and Nazem Kadri in his latest trade board.

And as we have seen in recent years, players brought in during this period can end up having a very real impact on a club’s chances of winning the cup. More than once recently, a depth player picked up on the trade market became the missing piece for an eventual champion, and came up with a pivotal moment that helped them win it all. As another deadline approaches, it’s a good idea to revisit recent history to understand what’s at stake here.

Of course, there is one key difference between this year’s Cup winners and their deadline day plans. Starting this postseason, teams must have lineups that comply with the league’s salary cap during the playoffs, which closes a previous loophole that allowed teams to use long-term injury reserves to add talent at the deadline and then ultimately construct playoff lineups that exceeded the cap.

In 2021, star winger Nikita Kucherov missed the entire regular season while recovering from hip surgery. The Bolts were able to add at the deadline because the league’s LTIR rules allowed Tampa Bay to exceed the cap limit on Kucherov ($9.5 million). Then, in the first round of the playoffs, number 86 returned. His club won the Cup with a playoff roster valued at over $90 million, well over that year’s regular season cap of $81.5 million.

In 2023, Vegas went the same route with LTIR veteran Mark Stone as the deadline approached. The winger returned similarly in the postseason, slotting the Golden Knights’ Cup-winning playoff roster just above the $82.5 million cap hit for the year. It was the same story for last year’s Panthers team, which leveraged Matthew Tkachuk’s LTIR status to make additions of its own, saw him return for Game 1, and outfitted a postseason lineup well over the league’s $88 million cap.

It won’t be so simple this time. Regardless of whether or not injuries hit the team in March, playoff participants will have to adhere to limits in April, May and June. By the end of this week, we’ll find out how much impact this can have for business teams.

Before we get there, let’s take a look back at how the league’s recent champions have used deadline time to energize their cup matches.

2025 Champions: Florida Panthers

The reigning champion is the clearest example in recent memory of how much impact deadlines can have on competitors. The 2025 Cats made two additions ahead of the deadline, both of which were crucial to their postseason run. GM Bill Zito initially brought in Seth Jones from Chicago, getting a defenseman and a fourth-round pick in exchange for goaltender Spencer Knight and a conditional first-round pick. Chicago also kept some of Jones’ salary, reducing his cap hit of $9.5 million to a more manageable $7 million. The Cats then signed veteran Brad Marchand, acquiring the winger from Boston for a conditional second-round pick, with the Bruins also retaining 50% of his salary.

Both additions had a huge impact. Jones established himself as an integral part of the club’s blue line, skating a team-leading 25 minutes per night to close the regular season and skating a team-leading 25:30 throughout the playoffs. Meanwhile, Marchand emerged as a pivotal offensive contributor in the Florida game. Forming a dangerous third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen, the no. Through 23 playoff appearances, 63 has scored 10 goals (third most on the team) and 20 points (sixth most on the team) while also scoring a team-leading three game-winning goals.

2024 Champions: Florida Panthers

A year ago, the Cats didn’t miss the deadline by that much, but Zito still managed to bring in two talented veterans to bolster the forward corps. The club acquired veteran sharpshooter Vladimir Tarasenko from Ottawa for a conditional fourth-round pick and a third-round pick, with the Senators agreeing to maintain his salary and reduce the winger’s cap hit. Florida also acquired Kyle Okposo from Buffalo and sent defenseman Calle Sjalin and a conditional seventh-round pick to the Sabres.

While Okposo hasn’t necessarily been a major part of the Cats’ game, collecting two assists through 17 playoff appearances, Tarasenko has scored 14 points in 19 regular season games and added nine points through 25 playoff appearances. But it was in the East finals that the former St. Louis Blues standout truly made his impact. Tarasenko scored the winner in Game 6 to book the Panthers’ ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals.

2023 Champions: Vegas Golden Knights

Key Deadline Additions: Ivan Barbashev, Jonathan Quick, Teddy Blueger

The 2023 Knights, who were able to take a big swing thanks to Mark Stone’s LTIR status, finally added another key piece to their championship team. Around the edges, Vegas acquired veteran netminder Jonathan Quick from Columbus in exchange for Michael Hutchinson and a seventh-round pick (the Jackets kept 50% of Quick’s cap hit) and added depth pivot Teddy Blueger from Pittsburgh in exchange for blueline prospect Peter DiLiberatore and a third-round pick. But the real game-changer was the signing of Ivan Barbashev, who joined the Golden Knights from St. Louis to replace forward prospect Jack Dean.

While Quick and Blueger were not central factors in the club’s cup run, Barbashev established himself as one of the team’s most important contributors. Forming an elite top line with Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault (the latter of whom eventually won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP), Barbashev had 16 points in 23 games to finish the regular season, and had seven goals and 18 points over 22 playoff appearances. Both players are in the top five of Vegas’ playoff scorers.

Adding another banner year to the deadline, the 2022 Avs made a slew of campaign-altering moves at the deadline. On the front line, the club acquired forward Artturi Lehkonen from Montreal in exchange for defenseman Justin Barron and a second-round pick. Added Andrew Cogliano from San Jose with a fifth-round pick (the Sharks kept 50% of the depth forward’s salary). Nico Sturm was acquired from Minnesota in exchange for Tyson Jost. On the back end, defenseman Josh Manson was acquired from Anaheim, and the Avs sent defenseman Drew Helleson and a second-round pick to the Ducks.

Cogliano and Sturm have come on board as stalwart depth contributors for the club. However, Lehkonen and Manson emerged as particularly important additions to Nathan MacKinnon’s side. Manson has established himself as a solid top-four stalwart on Colorado’s blueline, bringing a consistent defense-first physical presence to an offensively talented back end. Meanwhile, Lehkonen has made a decisive contribution to his new club. The winger scored eight goals and 14 points in 20 playoff appearances and led the league with four goals in the postseason. The most important of those game winners was the winner that gave Colorado the title in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

2021 Champions: Tampa Bay Lightning

The 2021 Bolts, the third of five teams to benefit from the LTIR loophole, entered the deadline with seemingly limited options. After acquiring Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow at the 2020 deadline en route to the Lightning’s first back-to-back Cups, Tampa headed into the 2021 deadline with seemingly little room to operate. Kucherov’s LTIR situation, along with some smaller deals, allowed the Bolts to make one important addition. The club acquired veteran defenseman David Savard from Columbus in a three-team swap in which the Blue Jackets received first- and third-round picks and Detroit also received a fourth-round pick. With some cap gymnastics, the Lightning were able to get Savard for 25% of his usual cap hit, while keeping both Columbus and Detroit on blueliner salaries.

The transition for Savard, brought in because the big, tough, defense-first veteran looked primed for postseason hockey, has been a bit of a rocky one. He played all of the first round against Florida and just one game in the second round against Carolina before returning in the third round against the New York Islanders and the Cup final against Montreal. Nonetheless, he produced some defining moments during the post-season stages. In Tampa Bay’s final game on the brink of winning the championship, the defenseman set up Ross Colton for a goal in a hard-fought 1-0 Game 5 win, clinching the Bolts’ first title in 16 years.