Which offseason moves have aged well so far this season?

Every NHL regular season is inevitably shaped by the offseason moves that elevated teams to new levels and the ones that failed in a bid to do so.

Last summer, several big names changed teams, but arguably no player that moved has had a bigger impact than Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras, who the Flyers bought low on in a bold deal with the Anaheim Ducks.

After bottoming out with just 47 points combined in Anaheim over the past two seasons, Zegras has 46 points in 49 games as the Flyers have been a surprise playoff contender since the season began.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Zegras’ impact and which other moves from the summer of delivered the best return on investment.

Tyler Yaremchuk: At the end of the day, the NHL is a results-driven business. If you make a trade, you are judged on not how the trade looks in the moment, but on how things play out. So let’s start on the positive side of things. I think we would all give Buffalo a big thumbs-up for the way they handled that Peterka situation and the return they got. Who are some other teams, Hutts, that when you look back at the summer you go “Man, now that we’re 50 games in, I’m willing to give this GM, this team, this move an A-plus grade?”

Carter Hutton: I think right now, it hasn’t gone as well as of late, but I think Trevor Zegras is a huge one, right? This is a guy that just lights the lamp for me in the fact of where he’s at and what he’s been able to do, just finding a new home and a change of landscape, and I think that’s something that’s important for me when I look at a lot of players I played with that come in that are the anointed ones. You go into a market, expectations are high, and if you don’t meet them early it’s almost like you’re always judged by your past. You can never really play yourself out of it, so for him to change and come to a market that is more demanding but with a fresh slate to see what he’s done under Rick Tocchet, I think has been very, very impressive.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…