STAT-ITUDE - WRESTLING DAY

Welcome to Wrestling Day!...In honor of the greatest heavyweight champion of all-time the Iron Shiek, I have annointed the day following the second biggest holiday of the year (trade deadline day) as a salute to the squared circle. With 10+ plus hours of programming under the belt of our colleagues James Duthie, Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and the boys on TSN Tradecentre, Statitude tdecide to takes a closer look inside the NHL trade deadline. We went inside the day analyzing trends and numbers, trying to make sense of the entire sensation.  With 16 trades over the course of the day, and the big fish Rick Nash staying put, not a lot of teams made a huge venture into the trade market with hopes of making dramatic changes to their roster. But, as recent history has shown us, maybe it's not the big names that make the biggest impact when it comes to perfomance by deadline acquistions. Upon further review, it looks like the role players are the ones with the biggest impact to their new teams over the last couple seasons. Over the last 10+ seasons, we looked into players who made immediate dividends with their new teams.... THE GREATFUL DEAD-LINE Most Goals after Trade Deadline (with new team only)  Forwards, Since 1996-97                                         Season         From     To        Goals Lee Stempniak             2009-10             Tor     Pho      14 Steve Thomas              2002-03             Chi     Anh      10 Jeff Halpern                 2007-08             Dal     TB       10 Mark Recchi                2008-09              TB      Bos      10 Peter Mueller               2009-10              Pho     Col       9 Most Points after Trade Deadline (with new team only) Forwards, Since 1996-97                                         Season       From     To        Pts Peter Mueller               2009-10          Pho     Col        20 Robert Reichel            1996-97          Cgy     NYI       19 Jeff Halpern                 2007-08          Dal      TB        18 Wojtek Wolski            2009-10          Col     Pho        18 Lee Stempniak            2009-10          Tor      Pho       18 Sergei Samsonov        2005-06          Bos     Edm      16 Matthew Lombardi     2008-09          Cgy     Pho       16 Mark Recchi               2008-09          TB      Bos       16 Most Points after Trade Deadline (with new team only),  Defencemen, Since 1996-97                                     Season           From     To      Pts Brian Campbell          2007-08          Buf       SJ       19 Sandis Ozolinsh         2005-06          Anh     NYR   14 Lubomir Visnovsky   2009-10         Edm     Anh     13 James Wisniewski      2008-09          Chi     Anh      11 Ryan Whitney            2009-10          Anh     Edm    11 Steve McCarthy         2005-06         Van     Atl        10 As you can see, certain players simply became a "nice addition" down the stretch as playoff implications were of no real measured value (Stempniak, Mueller, Visniewskii) But players like Thomas and Samsonov not only got hot to end the season, but also became key contributors in long playoff runs for the Ducks and Oilers. Thomas had 3 GWG for the Ducks in the 2002-03 playoff run that had them lose in Game 7 of the Cup Final and Samsonov had 4 goals and 15 points for the Oilers in their magical Cup run in 2005-06. Now if we take a different look a trade deadline and attempt to measure the true value for teams in terms of adding players, you might be a little surprised with the findings.For you fans whose teams did nothing at the deadline, fear not and take solice in the fact that many teams stand pat and produce good results down the stretch. For instance, over the last couple of seasons, if we look at teams who did not make a single addition at the deadline,  Fewest Players Involved in Trades at Trade Deadline, Since 1996-97 To Make Conference Final                                                          Season       Num     Record       Playoffs Avalanche           1996-97         0          6-6-0        Lost Conf final Rangers               1996-97         0          5-5-1        Lost Conf final Avalanche           1999-00         0         9-2-1-0      Lost Conf final Stars                     1999-00        0        5-2-3-2       Lost Cup Avalanche           2000-01         0         8-4-1-0     Won Cup Devils                  2000-01         0       12-2-0-0      Lost Cup Hurricanes           2001-02         0         7-3-2-0      Lost Cup Maple Leafs        2001-02         0         8-5-1-0       Lost Conf final Devils                  2002-03         0         7-3-4-1      Won Cup Flames                 2003-04         0         8-4-2-0      Lost Cup Flyers                   2003-04         0         5-4-3-0      Lost Conf final Flyers                   2007-08         0         11-4-4       Lost Conf final Red Wings           2008-09         0          9-7-2        Lost Cup Blackhawks         2009-10         0          11-6-3      Won Cup Canadiens            2009-10        0            9-5-4        Lost Conf final Flyers                   2009-10        0          8-10-3       Lost Cup Sharks                  2009-10        0          11-6-2       Lost Conf final Sharks                  2010-11        0          12-4-3       Lost Conf final Lightning              2010-11        0           9-7-4        Lost Conf final On the Flip side, take a look at teams that sold the farm on deadline day and one can see that the results have not shown a great return. Outside of 4 teams who were out of contention and deemed themselves sellers, most teams who made significant changes at the deadline in hopes of spurring a playoff run, did not achieve desired results. MOVING DAY Most Players Involved in Trades at Trade Deadline, Since 1996-97                                                            Season     Num     Record       Playoffs Penguins            2002-03     13       2-8-2-0      out of playoffs Coyotes             2009-10     13        13-3-2       Lost 1st round Ducks                2008-09     12        11-5-1       Lost Conf semi Coyotes             2008-09     10         9-8-2        out of playoffs Hurricanes         2009-10     10       10-7-3       out of playoffs Rangers             1997-98      9          3-8-1        out of playoffs Penguins            1999-00     9         9-4-0-0       Lost Conf semi Canucks             2003-04     9         7-3-2-1       Lost 1st round Coyotes             2005-06      9         9-10-1        out of playoffs Lightning            2008-09      9         3-9-6          out of playoffs Panthers             2010-11      9        4-11-5        out of playoffs Just like opening day in baseball, deadline day gives fans renewed passion and vigor in the hopes that as that one piece of the puzzle might be the key to a playoff puzzle!  I guess time will tell.... Scott (@sjlenny94)