Chicago trades reigning Vezina winner Marc-Andre Fleury to Wild for draft pick
Rangers acquire Jets' Copp, Canucks' Motte; Canadiens flip Lehkonen to Avalanche
The NHL playoffs just wouldn't be the same without Marc Andre-Fleury being somewhere in the mix.
Unable to backstop retooling Chicago into contention, the three-time Stanley Cup-winner is headed to Minnesota to help the high-scoring Wild shore up their inconsistent goaltending issues for a late-season playoff push.
Minnesota gave up a conditional first-round pick in this year's draft to acquire the 37-year-old Fleury hours before the NHL trade deadline on Monday.
Fleury, who last missed the playoffs during his first full season in Pittsburgh 16 years ago, jumps 10 spots in the Western Conference standings by landing in Minnesota where he will share the goaltending duties with Cam Talbot. The Wild opened the day sitting fourth overall — and third in the Central Division — in a tightly contested playoff race.
In acquiring Fleury, who won a Vezina Trophy a year ago with Vegas, Minnesota traded backup goalie Kaapo Kahkonen and a fifth-round draft pick to San Jose for defenceman Jake Middleton. Kahkonen had a 12-8-3 record this season and was 0-5-1 with 21 goals allowed in his past six starts.
The Wild made a separate trade in which they acquired a second-round pick in the draft this summer from the rebuilding Arizona Coyotes for unsigned prospect Jack McBain, who represented Canada at the Beijing Olympics without NHL players.
WATCH l Key moves on NHL trade deadline day:
Rangers get Motte, Copp
The Vancouver Canucks have sent depth forward Tyler Motte to the New York Rangers for a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NHL draft. The Rangers also acquired another depth forward in Andrew Copp, sending the Winnipeg Jets two conditional second-round picks, a fifth-rounder and prospect Morgan Barron in return.
The Rangers also receive a sixth-round pick in the deal with the Jets.
Motte, of St. Clair, Mich., has seven goals and 15 points in 49 games for the Canucks this season.
He missed the beginning of the campaign after having off-season neck surgery that limited him to 24 games last year.
Vancouver also claimed veteran forward Brad Richardson off waivers from the Calgary Flames on Monday.
It's a return to Vancouver for the 37-year-old right-winger who spent two seasons with the team from 2014-16 and has notched two goals, two assists and 27 penalty minutes in 27 games for the Flames this year.
Copp has 13 goals and 35 points this season, on pace for a career-best campaign. He has 74 goals and 110 assists over eight seasons, all in Winnipeg.
The Jets' two conditional second-round picks from New York include the Rangers' own second-rounder this summer but it will become a first-round pick in 2022 if the New York advances to the Eastern Conference final and Copp plays in at least 50 per cent of the Rangers' playoff games.
Winnipeg also got the St. Louis Blues' second round pick in 2022 or New York's second round pick in 2023.
Habs flip Lehkonen to Avs for pick, prospect
The Montreal Canadiens have traded forward Artturi Lehkonen to the Colorado Avalanche.
Montreal gets defenceman Justin Barron and a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft in return.
The 20-year-old Barron played in two games for the Avalanche this season. He has five goals and 20 points in 43 games for the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles this season.
Barron, who played four seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, was a first-round draft pick (25th overall) of the Avalanche in 2020.
He is two points shy of matching his career best (31) set in 82 games during the 2018-19 campaign.
Lehkonen has 74 goals and 75 assists over six NHL seasons, all in Montreal. He has six goals and six assists in 33 post-season games, including three goals in the Canadiens' run to the Stanley Cup final last season.
Goaltender Andrew Hammond was also traded by the Canadiens ahead of the deadline, sending the veteran backup to the New Jersey Devils.
Centre Nate Schnarr was shipped to Montreal in return.
Oilers acquire Kulak from Habs, Brassard from Flyers
The Edmonton Oilers have acquired defenceman Brett Kulak from the Montreal Canadiens ahead of the trade deadline.
Edmonton sends fellow defenceman William Lagesson, a conditional second-round pick in the 2022 draft and a seventh-round pick in 2024 to the Canadiens.
A 28-year-old pending unrestricted free agent, Kulak has three goals and 13 points in 56 games this season and provide the Oilers depth to their blue-line as they push for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
In 316 career games with the Canadiens and Calgary Flames, the Edmonton native has registered 13 goals and 56 points.
The Flyers will retain 50 per cent of Brassard's salary this season.
A 34-year-old native of Hull, Que., Brassard has six goals and 10 assists in 31 games for Philadelphia this season and has played for nine NHL teams since being taken sixth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2006 draft.
Domi goes to Hurricanes
The Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes acquired forward Max Domi from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for prospect Aidan Hreschuk.
Domi, the 12th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, will head to his fourth team in seven years.
Domi, 27, recorded nine goals and 32 points in 53 games for Columbus this season. The Blue Jackets landed him in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens just before the start of the 2020-21 season.
In seven seasons with the Arizona Coyotes (2015-18), Montreal (2018-20) and Columbus, Domi has amassed 99 goals and 208 assists across 482 career games.
Hreschuk is a left-handed defenceman currently playing at Boston College. Carolina selected him in the third round (94th overall) in the 2021 draft.
Jets send D-man to Pens, who also add forward Rakell
The Winnipeg Jets have traded defenceman Nathan Beaulieu to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2022 NHL draft.
The Penguins also added forward Rickard Rakell from the Ducks.
Rakell, 28, has spent his entire 10-year NHL career with Anaheim after it selected him in the first round of the 2011 draft. The Swede plays on the right wing and has recorded 154 goals and 185 assists in 550 career games, including 16 goals and 28 points this season over 51 games.
The Jets made another trade ahead of Monday's 3 p.m. ET deadline, shipping the contract of centre Bryan Little and unsigned prospect Nathan Smith to the Arizona Coyotes for a 2022 fourth-round draft pick.
Little, who hasn't played since November 2019 after being hit in the head with a puck that left him with a perforated eardrum and dealing with vertigo, has two years left on a contract that carries an annual average value of just over $5.29 million US.
Beaulieu, meanwhile, is in the final season of a two-year contract with an AAV of $1.25 million.
The pending unrestricted free agent has 12 goals and 94 points in 419 career games with Winnipeg, Montreal and the Buffalo Sabres. He's added five assists in 21 playoff contests.
Winnipeg did add a player on Monday, picking up forward Zach Sanford from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a fifth-round pick in this year's draft.
Sanford, 27, has played 62 games for Ottawa this season with nine goals and eight assists.
Hurricanes sign Kotkaniemi to 8-year extension
Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi signed an eight-year contract extension.
The Hurricanes said the deal will pay Kotkaniemi an average annual salary of $4.82 million through the 2029-30 campaign.
Kotkaniemi has 11 goals this season to match his career best. He also has 12 assists for 23 points in 59 games.
Overall, Kotkaniemi has 33 goals and 52 assists in 230 career NHL games. The Finnish native was the No. 3 overall pick of the 2018 draft.
DeBrusk staying in Boston
Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk agreed a two-year, $8 million contract extension, hours before the trade deadline, an abrupt change in direction for a player who had requested a trade and been shopped around for months.
The Bruins entered Monday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens with 81 points, solidly in fourth place in the Atlantic Division.
DeBrusk, 25, has 15 goals and 11 assists this season. In his five-year NHL career, he has 82 goals and 78 assists.
Flames acquire Carpenter from Chicago
The Calgary Flames have acquired forward Ryan Carpenter from Chicago for a fifth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
The 31-year-old centre from Oviedo, Fla., has three goals and eight assists in 59 games for Chicago this season.
Carpenter's NHL career began in March 2014 when he signed with the San Jose Sharks as a free agent and he went on to play for the Vegas Golden Knights before inking a three-year, $3-million deal with Chicago in 2019.
Over 300 regular-season games, the six-foot, 200-pound forward has tallied 26 goals, 42 assists and 106 penalty minutes.
Sens ink Forsberg to extension
The Ottawa Senators signed goaltender Anton Forsberg to a three-year, $8.25-million contract extension.
The deal with the pending unrestricted free agent that carries an average annual value of $2.75 million was announced just under five hours before the NHL's deadline.
Ottawa made two more deals before the trade cutoff.
The Senators acquired forward Zach Senyshyn and a 2022 fifth-round draft pick from the Boston Bruins for defenceman Josh Brown and a conditional seventh-round selection this year.
Goaltender Michael McNiven was also acquired by the Senators in a deal with the Calgary Flames in exchange for future considerations.
Brown had six assists in 46 games with the Senators in 2021-22, while Senyshyn, the 15th pick in the 2015 draft, has played just 14 NHL contests in his career.
The 29-year-old Forsberg is in his second season in the nation's capital after being claimed off waivers last March from the Winnipeg Jets.
Matt Murray, who is currently out injured, still has two years left on his contract that pays in $6.25 million per season the netminder signed with Ottawa following a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins in October 2020.
Ottawa traded away one of its other pending UFAs on Sunday, shipping centre Nick Paul to the Tampa Bay Lightning for winger Mathieu Joseph and a fourth-round pick in 2024.
Rangers acquire Braun from Flyers
The New York Rangers acquired defenceman Justin Braun from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers will get a 2023 third-round pick in return.
The Rangers shore up their blueline for their playoff run with a player whose contract expires at the end of the season.
Braun, 35, has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) and 36 penalty minutes in 61 games this season.
Johansson back to Caps
Marcus Johansson is heading back to the team that drafted him.
The Washington Capitals acquired Johansson from the expansion Seattle Kraken, according to a second person with knowledge of the situation who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced.
Johansson, who signed with Seattle last summer, is on his sixth team since the Capitals traded him to New Jersey in the summer of 2017. The 31-year-old has six goals and 23 points in 51 games for the Kraken.
Johansson was a 2009 first-round pick of the Capitals, and he played his first seven NHL seasons with Washington.
With files from The Canadian Press and Field Level Media
