After the NHL’s 2025 trade deadline has passed, there are bubble teams out there who may or may not look the same. Let’s look at five of those teams and see what their immediate future looks like. In alphabetical order:
1. Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets have been one of the NHL’s most inspirational stories of the season this year, dealing with the tragedy of losing star winger Johnny Gaudreau and having coaching and management turnover as they slipped into a wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. So it did feel a bit disappointing to see Columbus’ trade deadline moves limited to adding center Luke Kunin from San Jose.
This isn’t to say the Blue Jackets won’t be able to pull off a playoff appearance this season. They’re still playing with house money, but it would be significantly disappointing for the Jackets to narrowly miss out on the post-season because they didn’t step up in a bigger way. Given that they had millions in cap space to use, it doesn’t seem ideal that they chose to more or less stand pat. Time will tell if Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell was right to not make bigger moves, but at the moment, it sure seems like this was an opportunity to improve that Columbus let pass them by.
2. Detroit Red Wings
We put the Red Wings on our list of trade deadline losers because (a) they didn’t make big moves, and (b) because the one move they did make was the inexplicable decision to acquire journeyman goaltender Petr Mrazek and center Craig Smith from the Chicago Blackhawks. But certainly, Detroit’s precarious current position in the Eastern Conference standings makes matters all the worse.
🚨 TRADE ALERT 🔁
The Detroit Red Wings trade Joe Veleno to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for goaltender Petr Mrazek and center Craig Smith. #LGRW
What do you think about Yzerman’s move to bring back Mrazek (1 year remaining @ $4.25 million) & acquire Smith? ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/pVuNtxXCsd
— Winged Wheel Podcast (@WingedWheelPod) March 7, 2025
The Wings have gone 3-6-1 in their past 10 games, and there’s now four teams ahead of them in the East’s battle for two wild-card berths. Unless they can pull out something of a minor miracle, Detroit is looking at an uphill battle to outlast not only teams in front of them, but teams behind them in the standings. And GM Steve Yzerman’s strategy could prove to be disastrous. If the Wings do fall apart the rest of the way, Yzerman’s strategy will be called into question, and rightly so. He’s taken a lax approach to roster improvement, and he’ll have no one to blame but himself if Detroit doesn’t come through positively in the final few weeks of the regular season.
3. Minnesota Wild
The Wild once again are stumbling late in the season, going 5-5-0 in their past 10 games to fall out of a top-three spot in the Central Division into the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. And the only move Minnesota GM Bill Guerin made at the deadline was picking up winger Justin Brazeau from Boston – hardly a needle-moving acquisition. You can blame that on the Wild’s limited cap space, but the truth is that many other cap-strapped teams found ways to make deals, and Minnesota shouldn’t have been any different.
The Wild are still likely to make the playoffs, but the other three teams at the top of the Central have leaped over them, and we don’t see Minnesota going on a season-ending win streak to get back into the top three. And that should incense Wild fans who deserve a lot more than their team backing into a post-season spot.
4. St. Louis Blues
It would be one thing if the Blues failed to make the playoffs while St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong added pieces for the long-term by trading veterans other teams were prepared to pay notable prices for. We’re talking, of course, about captain Brayden Schenn and defenseman Colton Parayko. However, Armstrong didn’t make a single move at the deadline, and it’s unlikely that they outlast a slew of teams for a wild-card spot.
The Blues are just one standings point behind Calgary for the second and final wild-card berth, but there is still Vancouver in front of them for that spot. St. Louis could wind up in the mushy middle, not good enough for a playoff berth, but not bad enough for a top draft pick. That’s a very good way to spin your wheels as an NHL franchise, but that seems to be the Blues’ destiny. And you can see why St. Louis fans will be highly upset if that’s how things turn out this season.
5. Utah Hockey Club
It feels like we say this just about every year with this Utah/Arizona franchise, but once again, the Utah Hockey Club is on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. And instead of UHC GM Bill Armstrong making bold moves to shake up his team’s roster, he chose to do nothing at this year’s deadline – apart from a move to get off of Shea Weber’s contract. Utah is also only a few points out of a wild-card spot, but we’re not confident they can beat the odds and become a playoff team this year.
Utah had more than enough cap space to be a facilitator for other teams’ deals, and to make deals all on their own. So yes, that feels like a loss for them as an organization. And that means it could well be another long off-season, filled with regret and dismay, before they get another chance to make the evolution into a playoff team.
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