Avalanche, Stars, Wild bulk up in Central with deals before Trade Deadline

Nazem Kadri’s three words said it all.

“Is this real?” he said in an interview with TSN on Friday.

The veteran forward was referring to the news that he’d just been traded minutes earlier by the Calgary Flames to the Colorado Avalanche, the team he won the Stanley Cup with in 2022.

Of course, that same phrase could have been used by the entire NHL in terms of the maneuvering going on in the Central Division, where arguably the three top teams in the League all bulked up prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday in their respective bids to win hockey’s Holy Grail.

“It’s the best division in hockey,” Utah Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong said. “It’s a punch-in-the-face competition, not only on the ice but off the ice of our division getting better all the time. So it’s only going to make us better.

“It’s going to be great hockey for the fans to watch.”

Oh, it’s real, all right.

Consider just how much.

In the latest edition of NHL.com's Super 16 that was released Thursday, the Colorado Avalanche (No. 1 overall), Dallas Stars (No. 2) and Minnesota Wild (No. 5) were the three highest-ranked teams in the Western Conference and three of the top five teams in the entire League.

And each got better this week.

“There is a reason all these teams are potential Stanley Cup contenders,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said via a text to NHL.com on Friday evening. “They are well managed, well coached and have great players.

“This deadline lived up to those expectations.”

And then some.

Think of the influx of talent added by Central Division contenders in recent days.

Colorado picked up centers Kadri and Nicolas Roy, who came over in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, and brought in veteran defenseman Brett Kulak in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins last month.

Dallas brought in lanky defenseman Tyler Myers in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday to augment an impressive top four that already featured Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley. Also acquired, from the Nashville Predators on Thursday, was ornery forward Michael Bunting, whose sandpaper style escalates at Stanley Cup Playoff time.

Minnesota’s busy week included acquiring forward Michael McCarron from Nashville on Tuesday and forwards Bobby Brink from the Philadelphia Flyers and Nick Foligno from the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, landing defenseman Jeff Petry from the Florida Panthers on Thursday, and claiming forward Robby Fabbri off waivers on Sunday. In the end, as GM Bill Guerin pointed out, the Wild’s bottom six up front certainly has a different look.

“We’re better today than we were yesterday,” Guerin said.

The Avalanche and Stars could make the same claim, setting up a monumental stretch run into the postseason, not to mention a fascinating first two rounds.

Entering play Friday, Colorado (41-10-9) led the Central Division (and the overall NHL standings) with 91 points, six ahead of Dallas (38-14-9) and nine in front of Minnesota (36-16-10). Unless the Avalanche collapse down the stretch, the Stars and Wild appear locked in on a collision course for what stands to be an epic Western Conference First Round matchup.

“Look, to get where you want to get to, you’re going to have to beat tough teams along the way no matter who you face,” Nill said. “You just have to take care of business.

“No excuses.”

The Mammoth (33-25-4), another Central team, hold the first wild card into the playoffs from the West. With the goal of reaching the postseason for the first time since the Arizona Coyotes’ assets were transferred to Utah in 2024, the Mammoth made their own significant addition by landing defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in a trade with the Flames on Wednesday and will be anything but an easy out in the first round, should they make it.

It’s a division that features elite goal-scorers like Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, Dallas’ Jason Robertson and Minnesota’s Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov; arguably the two top defensemen in the world in the Wild’s Quinn Hughes and the Avalanche’s Cale Makar; and one of the best goalies in the NHL in the Stars’ Jake Oettinger, just to mention a few.

The retooling done by the Avalanche now gives them the most impressive cache of centers in the League. MacKinnon and Brock Nelson have been joined by Kadri and Roy up the middle, making for a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. 

For his part, Colorado GM Chris MacFarland said the moves made by the Avalanche had nothing to do with the transactions being completed by their division foes.

“Our division is very strong,” he said Friday night. “It goes beyond us. There’s Minnesota and Dallas. Utah is a very good hockey team. …

“We can’t worry about what those other teams are doing. They're going to do their business to try and improve. And we’re going to try to do the same and balance that.”

When asked if Colorado’s aggressiveness in improving its roster was a symbol of a Cup-or-bust attitude, MacFarland was having none of it.

“You can talk about the deadline. Who wins this? Who wins that? None of it matters,” he said. “It’s what happens on the ice in the next month and into the playoffs. …

“The playoffs is a different animal. The margins are so narrow. So, yes, we feel we have a team that can do damage. But so many things have to go right. So we’re trying to give our group, because they deserve it, if we can make them incrementally better on deadline day, that’s the goal. 

“The Cup-or-bust thing, you know, if a team makes it to the third round and they don’t win, does that mean their coach is a bad coach? Of course not. But we have high expectations and we wanted to help the group.”

Guerin was similarly asked if the Wild have a Cup-or-bust mindset and what pressure there goes along with it. He was quick to dismiss the entire concept.

“Just play,” he said. “Just be excited. Go out and be excited about it. Don’t feel pressure. You can’t.

“Get ready and go and play with passion and emotion and be confident. I hope our guys are confident.”

MacFarland and Nill couldn’t have said it any better.