A number of deals went down in the days ahead of the actual NHL trade deadline this year, as GMs gauged whether to gamble and either sell or buy ahead of time.
The buyers were certainly compensated for waiting until Wednesday's D-Day, while the sellers, for the most part, didn't get nearly as good of a return on the final day as the prices paid out ahead of time.
The Arizona Coyotes look smart for moving pending unrestricted free agent Michael Stone last week in exchange for a third-round pick, while the Buffalo Sabres got nothing at the deadline on Wednesday for pending UFA defensemen Dmitry Kulikov and Cody Franson.