The NHL's 2025-26 trade deadline passed on Friday, and certain NHL teams missed key opportunities, squandering cap space and trade assets they could've used to improve. Which franchises fumbled badly at the deadline?
The 2025-26 NHL trade deadline has passed, and here on THN.com, we’ve put together our picks for the teams that did very well at the deadline and the teams that were at the opposite end of the winner/loser spectrum.
On Friday, we made our choices for the teams that were the biggest winners – and you can find that file here.
Today, we’re focusing on the teams that, for one reason or another, are the biggest losers at the trade deadline. These are our five picks for the biggest losers at the deadline this year:
1. New York Rangers
The Rangers have been arguably the biggest disappointment in the league this season, as the worst team in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference.
Although Rangers fans anticipated Blueshirts GM Chris Drury making significant moves before the deadline, that didn’t happen, as the player most people anticipated to move – center Vincent Trocheck – stayed put.
It would be one thing if the Rangers dealt a different player of note and chose not to move Trocheck. Instead, Drury made excuses and failed to move the needle in any notable way.
While the Blueshirts will undoubtedly remain at the bottom of the standings, Drury basically blew a golden opportunity to remake his lineup, kicking the can down the road for the foreseeable future. For us, that makes the Rangers one of the biggest deadline disappointments, if not the biggest.
2. Carolina Hurricanes
Once again, the Hurricanes have been one of the best teams in the East. However, despite Carolina having a whopping $39.5 million in salary cap space, the sole move Canes GM Eric Tulsky made was the acquisition of greybeard fourth-liner Nicolas Deslauriers. That has to be a huge letdown for Carolina fans who expected Tulsky to make a big swing at the plate.
Now, the Hurricanes did get burned last year with pushes to acquire Jake Guentzel and Mikko Rantanen, which resulted in the Canes losing Guentzel in free agency and Rantanen being traded on deadline day.
But that doesn’t mean the Canes shouldn’t have set their sights higher than they ultimately did on the trade front. Tulsky had the cap space and the motivation to add a player to move the needle for his team, but he ultimately failed. That makes the Hurricanes a trade deadline loser in our estimation.
3. Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens have been having a terrific year this season, but the one thing Montreal GM Kent Hughes needed to pick up was a second-line center. And despite the Habs having the trade capital to trade for a center, Hughes did not trade for a single player.
Even moving often-injured sniper Patrik Laine would’ve been better for the Canadiens than no moves at all. Unfortunately for Habs fans, Hughes chose to stand pat. That may be the reason why Montreal doesn’t get out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year – or in a worst-case scenario, why they don’t get into the playoffs at all.
The Canadiens indeed had only $1.5 million in cap space, but where there’s a will, there’s usually a way – and the Habs did not find a way to get better. Thus, they’re a deadline loser this year.
4. Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers are in win-now mode, but the two acquisitions they did make at this year’s deadline – defenseman Connor Murphy and center Jason Dickinson – don’t really move the needle much, if at all, for them.
They dumped subpar forward Andrew Mangiapane to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Dickinson deal, and although you can say that’s addition by subtraction, the truth is that nobody outside Edmonton believes the team took a step forward.
Rather, it all feels like the moves the Oilers made were lateral. And at a time when superstar Connor McDavid’s contract is quickly running out, you wanted to see Edmonton make big moves. That didn’t happen, as Oilers GM Stan Bowman decided to make smaller acquisitions. So, Edmonton rightly has a place as a loser team at the deadline.
5. Florida Panthers
The back-to-back defending Cup champions are well out of a playoff spot in the East, but Panthers GM Bill Zito was oddly silent at the deadline, adding only depth forward Vinnie Hinostroza from the Minnesota Wild.
The Panthers had $2.2 million in cap space to use, and you’d think Zito would’ve spent every available penny to improve his team, but that didn’t materialize.
You can call Zito’s lack of moves an endorsement of his Panthers players, but we’re not that charitable. Florida had every reason to spend some assets to get back into the playoff picture and go on another deep post-season run.
But Zito either didn’t find willing sellers, or he found the price to improve too high. Either way, that’s a condemnation of him as a GM. The Panthers could wind up missing the playoffs altogether because Zito decided to stick with his group of players.
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