Coyotes, Caps Make a Splash at the Deadline

This year's trade deadline saw 55 players and 25 draft picks moved in 31 deals. Sounds busy, right? Well, actually, it wasn't—at least not for 28 teams.

The Washington Capitals and Phoenix Coyotes accounted for 11 of the 31 trades on March 3. While they were busy rearranging their lineup, most other franchises were happy making minor swaps. By my count, only one trade that didn't involve Washington or Phoenix moved a noteworthy player, and that was the Lubomir Visnovsky deal between the Oilers and Ducks, two teams out of the playoffs.

The Ilya Kovalchuk and Dion Phaneuf trades before the Olympic break took the wind out of deadline day. Phoenix, though—probably the last team you'd expect to make a flurry of deals at the deadline—made seven of them. The Coyotes traded away former eighth overall pick Peter Mueller, who requested a trade after his production dropped to 13 goals this year (down from 22 in his rookie season). They also shipped out five picks and four minor leaguers/prospects.

In return they received, notably, wingers Lee Stempniak and Wojtek Wolski and defensemen Mathieu Schneider and Derek Morris. Not bad for a team hindered by money trouble. It's the most transactions I've seen from a playoff team in a long time.

Phoenix is 3-0 since the deadline.

Washington, meanwhile, added Scott Walker (for the bargain place of a seventh-round pick), veteran forward Eric Belanger, one-time Capital Milan Jurcina and fellow defenseman Joe Corvo.

Walker and Belanger shore up the lower lines on offense, but I don't think Jurcina and Corvo were what the Capitals needed on the blue line. Washington needed a shutdown defenseman to complement the scoring they get on the backend from Mike Green. Instead, they added Corvo, who fits their run-and-gun game plan well but doesn't add anything they don't already have.

Come playoff time, I could see a team like New Jersey knocking off the top-seeded Caps—they have the defense to shut down Alex Ovechkin (at least a little bit), and I don't think Washington has a defensive pair to match up against Kovalchuk and Olympic star Zach Parise. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, though.

For the Penguins fans out there, I'll add my two cents on Pittsburgh's addition of defenseman Jordan Leopold. He's an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, so I don't think the Pens added him for a long-term benefit, although I could see a team signing him this summer in hopes he'll re-emerge as the top four defenseman he was in Calgary before injuries ruined him.

No, the Penguins just acquired him for depth. Pittsburgh's defense was ravaged by injuries in November, so the front office is just making sure they have a competent player that can step up should it happen again. Better safe than sorry.