Marc Bergevin had quite an eventful trade deadline in 2017, dealing three players and several draft picks away and gaining five acquisitions. Two defencemen were added in the days leading up to the deadline, with three fourth-line forwards brought in between midnight and the deadline of 5:00 PM on March 1.
The first area addressed before the playoff roster was finalized was the defence corps. Not long after bringing in Claude Julien to replace Michel Therrien behind the bench, a young defenceman was on the move as Greg Pateryn was packaged with a sixth-round draft pick for Jordie Benn of the Dallas Stars.