Another year another trade deadline in the NHL. And oddly enough this year's trade deadline felt well, pretty quite. Especially compared to years past, there were no shocking blockbuster trades from teams trying to become real contenders. Usually that's what we look for and talk about after the trade deadline. The crazy trades that you never saw coming or expected. We didn't really have a lot of that this time around though.

There are probably a couple of different main reasons for why this happened this year specifically. The first one that seemed the most obvious to me was the looming expansion draft. Due to the addition of the Las Vegas Golden Knights this past summer each team in the league will lose at least one player to them. As the new team did not start out with a roster to give them an even playing field, the NHL is letting Vegas have an expansion draft where they can select one player from all 30 NHL teams to be on their roster. Obviously the current 30 teams are in the process of evaluating their rosters and seeing which players they would like to protect as per the rules for the expansion draft. Due to this scrutinizing, you can imagine that many teams would want to keep their players close to them to figure this all out.

The other reason that's been thrown around for such a quiet deadline is that many GM's believed they could get better prices for their players in the summer. This is a reasonable assumption to make because as the week went along what teams where getting in return for their players was considerably less than in past years. Particularly I can think of a deal the Blackhawks did where they were able to get a depth defenseman in Johnny Odyua for a prospect the team had given up on and a conditional pick. (By the way, it felt like there were a million conditional picks this year. What's up with that?) That's not a lot in return for a player that could get the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final. Which makes it fair to say that many teams probably held their best tradeable player back for this summer.

Now that we've looked at the reasons why this trade deadline was a little slow, lets talk about the winners and losers of this deadline. There were quite a few interesting moves made this trade deadline that deserve to be talked about. Lets start with the winners first as who doesn't like talking about success?

The biggest winner for me would have to be the Washington Capitals. They made the biggest move of the trade deadline by adding Kevin Shattenkirk to their blue line from the St. Louis Blues for two draft picks and two centers that had mainly been in the pipeline for the team. Besides adding a great defenseman to their team, the Capitals were also able to have St. Louis take on 39% of his salary. They also made another smaller move in picking up Cody Corbett for prospect goalie Joe Cannata. It will be very exciting to see how the Capitals do in the playoffs as they could be almost unbeatable with this addition to their team.

Another team that did very well at the deadline was the Montreal Canadiens who added some bulk to their roster. They were able to make a handful of trades which brought them left wing Dwight King, center Steve Ott, defenseman Brandon Davidson, defenseman Jordie Benn, and defenseman Keegan Lowe. As many say, defense wins teams championships and the Habs are definitely following this philosophy to a T this trade deadline. They also didn't lose to much in making these trades, mostly draft picks and mum pipeline prospects.

Now onto the losers. The first loser is so obvious it's honestly very sad. It's the New York Islanders who did not make a single trade during the deadline. Not a one even though they just barely sit in the second wild card spot in the Eastern conference. And considering who is behind them in the Toronto Maple Leafs and both Florida teams, I don't see this working out for the Islanders. All three of those other teams made some important trades to get better after the deadline. So by not making a single move, the Islanders have probably sunk their ship for this year.

The other big loser at the trade deadline was the Colorado Avalanche. Now the Avalanche unlike the Islanders actually made some trades. But Colorado is last in the league right now and by almost twenty points. The closest team to the Avalanche is the Arizona Coyotes who have 53 pints while the Avs have only 37. Colorado only had one big name during their trades and that was Jarome Iginla who was moved to the Los Angeles Kings. Which they only did for a conditional 4th round pick while retaining half of Inginla's salary. The Avs were also only able to get two prospect players during this deadline. None of this is going to help them at all as they sit so far back.

There are also a couple of interesting moves to look at. Like I'm not entirely sure what the Kings game plan was for this trade deadline. While the additions the Kings have made are pretty good for a team just hanging in the wild card race, it makes little sense in the long run. For example, Iginla wanted to be traded to a cup contender team, even though Los Angeles really isn't to that level this year. The Ben Bishop pickup is also cause for some scrutiny. Bishop has been the starter in Tampa for a few years and is now at a team where he is being used as a backup. The Kings also had a great backup goaltender in Peter Budaj who held the team up in Jonathan Quick's absence. It was definetely one of the more interesting moves of the trade deadline.

Also a trade that may have happened under the radar was between the Ottawa Senators and the Calgary Flames. In this deal I believe the Flames are the ones on the beneficial side of the trade. They received Curtis Lazar, a young right wing who lead Team Canada to 4th place in the World Junior Championship in 2014. He's a pretty young player, not yet in his prime, so he'll be able to grow in Calgary. They also received a more veteran defenseman in Michael Kostka who has moved around the NHL a little bit in his career. While the Ottawa Senators received Jyrki Jokipakka and a draft pick in return. It's beneficial for both teams for sure, but in the long run I believe that Calgary will benefit more.

All in all it ended up being a pretty interesting trade deadline in the NHL despite the lack of blockbuster trades. Several teams upgraded their roster and have made it look to be an interesting fight to the finish. Most teams only have about 20 games left until the regular season is over. And with standings so close at the moment, especially in the East, it could be anyone's game. This last stretch of hockey will probably be the best games we have seen yet, due in part to this deadline. I know I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully you will too.