Trade ledger · 2009 to today
Every NHL trade, graded
Each asset is scored by the goals above replacement it delivered to the team that received it: every game from the trade until he left, playoffs included, and for draft picks the player the team took with it. The winner is the team that got more of it. Trades with players still on their new team, unmatured prospects or future picks are still counting.
Cap space
What is cap space worth?
A salary dump trades draft picks for cap room. To price it, cap is measured in cap-%-seasons: 1% of the upper limit for one season (about $1.04M in 2026-27), above the league minimum a replacement would cost. Retained salary stays on the sender's books until the contract ends.
| Date | Dumped by | Contracts sent | Picks attached | Cap shed %-seasons | Picks E[GAR] |
Space worth goals | Next-season cap use | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-02 | VGK to ARI | Shea Weber | 2023 5th | 25.8 | 2.2 | 19.1 | 118% | |
| 2011-10 | FLA to VAN | Steven Reinprecht, David Booth | 2013 3rd | 18.9 | 3.9 | 14.0 | 83% | |
| 2017-06 | CBJ to VGK | David Clarkson | 2017 1st, 2019 2nd | 17.5 | 19.5 | 13.0 | 97% | |
| 2024-08 | CBJ to MTL | Patrik Laine | 2026 2nd | 16.6 | 7.2 | 12.3 | 81% | |
| 2018-07 | CHI to ARI | Marian Hossa, Jordan Oesterle, Vinnie Hinostroza | 2019 3rd | 16.2 | 2.1 | 12.0 | 90% | |
| 2011-06 | CGY to BUF | Robyn Regehr, Ales Kotalik | 2012 2nd | 14.2 | 7.5 | 10.5 | 99% | |
| 2021-07 | NYI to ARI | Andrew Ladd | 2022 2nd, 2023 3rd, 2021 2nd | 11.6 | 16.9 | 8.6 | 92% | |
| 2023-03 | CBJ to ARI | Jakub Voracek | 2023 6th | 11.1 | 2.0 | 8.2 | 78% | |
| 2025-09 | MTL to SJS | Carey Price | 2026 5th | 10.1 | 2.0 | 7.5 | 97% | |
| 2021-07 | PHI to ARI | Shayne Gostisbehere | 2022 7th, 2022 2nd | 9.1 | 10.5 | 6.8 | 95% | |
| 2021-04 | FLA to CHI | Riley Stillman, Brett Connolly, Henrik Borgström | 2021 7th | 8.3 | 1.4 | 6.2 | 104% | |
| 2024-03 | CAR to PIT | Ville Koivunen, Cruz Lucius, Vasily Ponomarev, Michael Bunting | 2024 5th, 2024 2nd | 7.8 | 7.6 | 5.8 | 99% | |
| 2014-02 | STL to BUF | Jaroslav Halak, Chris Stewart, William Carrier | 2015 1st, 2016 3rd | 7.5 | 16.2 | 5.5 | 99% | |
| 2022-07 | TOR to CHI | Petr Mrázek | 2022 1st | 7.3 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 105% |
Biggest 14 of 55 dumps by cap shed. A dump sheds at least 2 cap-%-seasons net, attaches more expected pick value than it gets back, and takes back at most a quarter of the contract money it sends. Pick value is the average goals above replacement a pick at that slot gave its drafting team in the 2010-16 drafts.
Method
How trades are graded
Goals above replacement. A player's net goals in each game, minus what a replacement-level player at his position would have produced (forwards −3.4, defence −1.9 and goalies −26.5 net goals per 82 games). Goalie value is goals saved above expected against that much deeper replacement level, which is why goalies top the all-time list. Tick Skaters only to set every goalie aside.
The window. Every regular-season game for the receiving franchise from the trade until his first game for another team, so a re-signing counts and a departure ends it, plus the playoffs of each season he finished there. Arizona and Phoenix count as Utah, and Atlanta as Winnipeg.
Draft picks. Credited only if the receiving team made the pick itself; the value is what the drafted player gave that team. A pick or player traded on again is marked, and its value lives in the later trade.
Still counting. Any asset still with its team, a prospect drafted in 2022 or later, a future pick or a trade this off-season. 2009-10 trades are partial: the game data starts in 2010-11.
Salary dumps. Flagged when a team sheds at least 2 cap-%-seasons of contract, net, attaches more expected draft-pick value than it gets back and takes back at most a quarter of the money it sends. The grade itself counts goals only: the value of the cap room is in the section above.
Sources. Trade records and contracts from CapWages; draft order and pick ownership from the NHL; games and net goals from puckmodel's play-by-play model.