Worst Trade Deadline Heists Of The Decade
7. Carolina Hurricanes Land Brady Skjei
Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images
Another deal. Another defenseman.
Former first-round pick Brady Skjei was in his fourth full season with the team that drafted him, the New York Rangers, when the Carolina Hurricanes came calling at the 2020 deadline and pried him loose from Broadway for a first-rounder in that summer's draft.
Like Ekholm before him, Skjei had become established as an all-around blue-line presence and had four years remaining on a contract that'll actually be expiring this summer.
He scored 10 points in 52 games in his first "full" season with Carolina, went to 39 and 38 in the next two, and is on pace for a career-high 45 this season. He's been a plus player in every season since the trade and is second on the team in ice time at 21:15 per game.
Perhaps the only knock from the Raleigh side is that the deal hasn't yielded a Stanley Cup, but the Hurricanes will again reach the 2024 playoffs as a favorite in the Eastern Conference.
The Rangers flipped the first-rounder they acquired from Carolina to Calgary and moved up in the draft to select defenseman Braden Schneider, who's produced 44 points in 184 games with New York across parts of three seasons.
