The NHL Has A Chance Unlike Any Other This Year To Out-Do The NBA's Trade Deadline
Sara Schmidle. Getty Images.One of the biggest complaints out of hockey fans over the years has been the ever decreasing excitement when it comes to the Trade Deadline. As the years go by, the GM's get stingier and stingier. What used to be one of the most entertaining days of the year has quickly devolved into a couple of bottom 6 forwards getting swapped for 4th round picks, and Thomas Vanek getting traded anywhere because it's a law that Thomas Vanek always moves on Deadline Day. And to make matters worse for hockey fans, it has always seemed like there was so much more movement and drama in the NBA as they got closer to the deadline. I honestly don't know if that's necessarily true, but at least it's felt that way lately.
But this year the NBA Trade Deadline has come and gone. Admittedly, Victor Oladipo going to Miami right after the buzzer is a big time needle move. But Lonzo is still in New Orleans. Kyle Lowry is still in Toronto. The Clippers and Hawks swapped Lou Williams and Rajon Rondo. This NBA Trade Deadline was the closest they could have got to a typical NHL Trade Deadline. Drive up a ton of hype of anticipation with having a bunch of big name players involved in a ton of big time trade rumors, and then totally undeliver on Deadline Day making everybody feel sick for even caring about it in the first place.
So now the NHL is in a truly unique situation. We're still a few more weeks away from the NHL Trade Deadline on April 12 and for the first time in a long time, the league can finally out-do the NBA when it comes to drama and movement. Not because I think there are going to be a flurry of moves on the 12th or anything like that, but just by nature of the NBA setting the bar so incredibly low today. And to make matters even more interesting, Canada is loosening up some quarantine restrictions when it comes to trading players over the border.
That at least guarantees the fact that Marc Bergevin is going to rack up 6 or 7 trades on Deadline Day. So all you really need is to move Taylor Hall to make yourself even with the Oladipo trade. Those will cancel each other out. And the rest is just a sprint to the finish. I think if Ekholm, Palmieri and anybody in the Toronto organization are on the move, then the NHL wins the deadline war against the NBA. And who knows. Maybe the Buffalo Sabres will continue to lose every game between now and the 12th and Jack Eichel will just trade himself.
Again, Oladipo was big. I'll give the NBA that. But the rest of it was super NHL. So if Gary Bettman really wants to get the buzz of the league going before the ESPN deal kicks in, he'll get these GMs all liquored up and tell them to go off on the 12th. Make it happen, Gary.