PowerPlay Magazine

Without question the biggest splash that has been and likely will be made at this year's NHL trade deadline has to be by the Pittsburgh Penguins. GM Ray Shero's acquisitions of rental players Douglas Murray, Brenden Morrow and Jarome Iginla will make an already incredible team of stars and superstars into one that is seemingly all but unbeatable. While rental players have been around for some time it's nevertheless a dramatically interesting and rarely deployed strategy to significantly revamp an already successful roster late in the season, i.e. to go “all in”. But is this strategy a successful one?

To examine this question one should look at the history and success of rental players individually first. A reasonably compelling argument could be made that the first rental player in NHL history was Phil Goyette. A slick playmaker and Laby Byng award winner, Goyette was well into the autumn of his career when he was traded for “cash” late in the 1971-72 season from the Buffalo Sabres to the New York Rangers. 39 year-old Goyette acquitted himself fairly well, amassing 9 points in 21 regular season and playoff games. But his example set the rental player template for decades to come as Goyette's impact on the Rangers' playoff push and drive was ultimately proved inconclusive. The Rangers lost in the final to the Bruins 4 games to 2, with Goyette sitting for 3 of the Rangers 16 playoff games.

Using boxscores of limited information for most of the NHL's modern history Goyette's example is pretty much what one can expect from the prototypical, individual rental player. For every Bill Guerin, Doug Weight, Ron Francis and Mark Recchi there is a Denis Savard, Peter Forsberg, Ray Bourque and, uh... well, Mark Recchi. However Shero did not merely add one rental player, but three. So while the history of the NHL is fairly full of individual rental players as well as multi-player trades earlier in the season, the practice of loading up with quality rental players around the trade deadline is notably rare.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it was again the Rangers who arguably first innovated in roster management by 'going all in' in 1993-94. GM Neil Smith went absolutely crazy picking up Glenn Anderson, Craig MacTavish, Brian Noonan and (technically non-rental player) Stephane Matteau. With a team full of stars and superstars like Sergei Zubov, Mark Messier, Adam Graves and Brian Leetch it's hard to tell if Smith's deadline moves were what was necessary to get the Rangers over that final hurdle. But unlike Goyette the first instance of 'going all in' coincided with success for the Rangers in a very tight Cup final 4 games to 3 over the Vancouver Canucks.

With that success in mind Smith tried to re-ignite the magic by first signing Wayne Gretzky at the beginning of the 1996-97 season and then loading up at the trade deadline with Esa Tikkanen and Russ Courtnall. However unlike '94 the Rangers fell short losing in the Eastern Conference final. It would be another 10 years before a GM would be brave enough to so seriously tinker with a winning team late in the season. Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell snapped up Keith Tkachuk, Alexei Zhitnik and (technically non-rental player) Eric Belanger in what proved to be a completely inept attempt to push the Thrashers deep into their first post-season, losing in 4 straight in the first round.

Which then brings us to this trade deadline. With all this history that is barely touched on here it would be difficult to say just how effective Shero's gambit in and of itself will be. But if one were a gambling man it's pretty obvious that the 2013 Penguins are much closer in over-all talent and success to the 1993-94 Rangers than either the 1996-97 Rangers or the 2006-07 Thrashers. As a hockey fan I'm tremendously excited for the playoffs to start, not just to see the best game played at the very highest level, but also to see just how Shero's bold moves play out. But as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan 9 years removed from playoff action it's telling how much I'm dreading the possibility of matching up against those very same killer Penguins.