It was a tight playoff race until it was not.

With so many possibilities in play last Friday, and the potential for playoff-clinching scenarios to play out on the final day of the regular season, the ensuing results locked in the 16 playoff teams.

So we know who will be in the dance, and we even know what some of the Round 1 series will be, but the final days will be spent grappling for home-ice advantage and seeding.

It’s at this point that we think back a little over a month to the trade deadline, and how moves that were made (or not made) have panned out and influenced the playoff races.

In today’s look at the Road to the Playoffs, we look at the job each of the 16 teams that have clinched a playoff spot did that day, and how it’s impacted their playoff outlook.

Buffalo: Come playoff time, blue-line depth is crucial to have because injuries are inevitable and you will be challenged when you have to insert your seventh, eighth or ninth defenceman into the lineup. That’s what the Sabres focused on, bringing in Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley in one fell swoop from Winnipeg. While Stanley has become a regular on their raid pair, Schenn has played just three regular-season games as a Sabre.

Tampa Bay: Grit, toughness, pedigree, experience — all these playoff buzzwords were in mind when the Lightning’s sole move at this deadline was to acquire Corey Perry. He won his only Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007, but has been to recent finals with Dallas (2020), Montreal (2021), Tampa Bay (2022), and Edmonton (2024 and 2025), losing each time. He has eight points in 21 games since rejoining the Lightning and his contributions to the Oilers’ past two runs can’t be discounted. He had 14 playoff points in 22 games just last spring.

Montreal: The Canadiens were quiet at the trade deadline this season, believing the roster to be in a good place already. Good bet. The most consequential trade they made this season, as it pertains to these playoffs, was to bring back checking centre Phillip Danault in a December trade with Los Angeles. He doesn’t score much, but Danault is a frustrating defensive player to line up against.

Carolina: There were no Mikko Rantanen-type swings from the Canes this season; rather, their deadline was relatively quiet. The pickup who might have the most playoff impact was Nic Deslauriers, who has only played six games with them so far. The 35-year-old only has five games of playoff experience in his career, but big and physical players are often in demand in the post-season and can have an outsized impact on a serious contender — positively or, sometimes, negatively.

Pittsburgh: As outlined in a piece we did this week on how Kyle Dubas re-shaped the Penguins into a playoff team, several small moves were made that have contributed to their rise, but no in-season trade they made this season has had a bigger impact than Egor Chinakhov. No longer a fit in Columbus, Chinakhov has become a top-line winger and scorer on the Penguins, a key part of their revival with a career season of his own. The 25-year-old was the perfect pick-up, at the perfect time, when Pittsburgh acquired him in late December.

Philadelphia: The Flyers were more of a seller at the deadline, sending Deslauriers to Carolina, but perhaps the story is more about what they didn’t do at the deadline. They didn’t trade away Rasmus Ristolainen, and they didn’t make any other deeper changes to the roster when they were six points out of the race. The most impactful trade they did make to change this roster was in acquiring Trevor Zegras last June. He’s their second-leading scorer and No. 1 centre now.

Boston: It was a quiet deadline for the Bruins, who weren’t exactly a top contender but not a retooling team either. Their most consequential trades impacting this team happened at last year’s deadline (Fraser Minten) and over the summer (Viktor Arvidsson). Arvidsson has especially had a tremendous bounce-back season with 24 goals and 53 points in 68 games for one of the better years of his career.

Ottawa: Funny that the biggest “name” involved in a Senators trade this season was them moving out David Perron to Detroit. Hours before that deal, the Senators brought in Warren Foegele from Los Angeles, a depth winger with 86 games of playoff experience, including a Cup Final run with Edmonton in 2024.

Colorado: Strength down the middle is a vital component for any team with serious Stanley Cup hopes. It was an area the Avalanche upgraded at the 2025 trade deadline (Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle) and again at the 2026 deadline (Nicolas Roy, Nazem Kadri). The last time Kadri was an Av, they won the Cup and he was a near point-per-game second-line centre. With Nelson already there and having one of his most productive seasons, Colorado will have the option to use Kadri down the middle or beef up their top two lines with him on the wing.

Dallas: With Tyler Seguin out for the season, there was some thought the Stars might try and use some of those cap savings to acquire a centre, but with Jason Robertson’s upcoming RFA contract to deal with, they wouldn’t have been able to take on a high AAV contract with term. In the end, they only dabbled on the market, acquiring Tyler Myers to beef up the back end, and Michael Bunting for a shot of scoring depth, but he has only one goal in 12 games.

Minnesota: The biggest trade of the season happened in December when the Wild brought Quinn Hughes into town, and while they did seek out some other big upgrades at the deadline, they ended up settling for depth. Nick Foligno, Bobby Brink and Jeff Petry were all brought in at the deadline to help the club further down its lineup or in injury scenarios.

Vegas: We were all waiting for Vegas’ big, surprising move — something that has happened so often it’s less a surprise now, more an expected characteristic. But January’s trade for Rasmus Andersson remained Vegas’ most notable trade this season. At the deadline, they did still add, bringing in centre Nic Dowd and winger Cole Smith for the fourth line.

Edmonton: With the core easily defined and consecutive appearances in the Cup Final, the Oilers are all about finding the right players for the edges of the roster, who bring a specific element to help elevate the team’s results. This year’s deadline was spent moving on from the Andrew Mangiapane project (costing them a first-rounder to unload) and acquiring Jason Dickinson for a depth centre role he had been fitting in well to before getting injured. They also brought in Connor Murphy from Chicago, and he’s been solid in the top four, averaging the third-most even-strength minutes and second-most PK time per game among all Edmonton blueliners since arriving.

Anaheim: With the Ducks such a free-flowing, offence-leaning team, there was some expectation they might add a defensive element or two at the deadline. But, in what was perhaps the most shocking deal of the day, Anaheim instead leaned into the offence and acquired John Carlson from Washington. It shook the Capitals to see such a tenured player go, and it flabbergasted those who believed the Ducks needed a different skill set. Since the trade, Carlson averages the most power-play time of all Ducks blueliners, and has 12 points in 14 games — with a fitting minus-2.

Utah: The Mammoth have been looking to push some of their many young trade chips (prospects, picks, etc) in for immediate roster upgrades and they did accomplish that in one deal this year, acquiring Mackenzie Weegar from Calgary. His offensive numbers aren’t there (five points in 17 games), but Weegar is averaging more than 18 minutes of even-strength ice time per game and plays on both special teams units.

Los Angeles: The Kings made a pre-Olympics blockbuster to bring in Artemi Panarin and make a playoff push, but then unfortunately lost Kevin Fiala for the year when he was injured at the best-on-best tournament. So, what to do at the deadline? Three points out of the wild card at the time, Los Angeles played a little of both buyer and seller, bringing in third-line centre Scott Laughton, while trading out Foegele to Ottawa and Perry to Tampa.