3 Unexpected Trades In The Atlantic Division In 2022-23

The top of the Atlantic division has been set for a while, but the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators have been hanging around. The trade deadline saw lots of key moves made by the top of the division and some were questionable and unexpected. The Toronto Maple Leafs added a ton and we'll look at two unexpected trades by them as well as one by the Sabres.

The Maple Leafs had acquired Conor Timmins and Jake McCabe in earlier deals, and as T.J. Brodie returned, the thought was that they either had one more move in them or they were done adding. Then came the swap of Rasmus Sandin for Erik Gustafsson and a first round pick. Even Sandin was shocked because even though he wasn't getting into every game, he didn't ask for a trade or think one was coming. Although Gustafsson was having a strong season offensively for the Washington Capitals, he was in a position to do so. The Maple Leafs didn't need a top-four offensive defenceman and didn't have room on the top power-play unit, so it was a weird addition.

At this time, the Maple Leafs now had eight/nine serviceable NHL defencemen in their organization, but went out and added another one. They acquired Luke Schenn from the Vancouver Canucks, and even though this was a good addition to their team, it should have come earlier as they have too many defencemen to play every night and are being forced to run with 11 forwards and seven defence in the lineup.

The trade Buffalo made that was unexpected is acquiring Jordan Greenway. Though he is young and big, he has had a very down season and is under contract at $3 million AAV for two more seasons which is risky. The Sabres may have cap space right now, but some big contracts are going to start to kick in. It also cost them a lot to acquire someone who was doing very little to help the success of the Minnesota Wild before the trade.