NHL
2026 NHL
Trade Deadline
Ottawa's Warren Foegele and Tampa Bay's Corey Perry were just two players who hit the ground running with their new teams. Steph Chambers and Chris Tanouye / Getty Images
SEATTLE — The NHL trade deadline is always a frantic time for players changing addresses and teams, but a handful of players have already hit the ground running on reaching the scoresheet.
Since Friday’s trade deadline, five players have scored a goal in their first game with their new teams. New Minnesota Wild forward Michael McCarron scored the game-winning goal and added an assist in a 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
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“It felt good to get a couple of points there,” McCarron said. “It’s not necessarily what I was brought in here to do. But, (it) feels good to be rewarded.”
On Saturday, four players scored in their first games since being traded: Calgary’s Ryan Strome, Ottawa’s Warren Foegele, Los Angeles’ Scott Laughton and Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry, who previously played two seasons with the Lightning before returning to the team on Friday. Perry arrived at his team’s hotel in Toronto at 5:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning after being traded from the Kings, hours before the pregame skate and puck drop. The 40-year-old has suited up for six teams since 2019 and has made the Cup Final in five of his last six seasons.
“At the end of the day, you have a chance to win the Stanley Cup and come to a great team and a great Cup contender,” Perry told the media in Toronto on Saturday morning, hours before the Lightning defeated the Maple Leafs 5-2. “And that’s what the end goal is.”
Perry’s former Kings teammate, Foegele, met his new Senators teammates on Saturday and said it had been a “wild 48 hours” for him. However, that didn’t mean he was any less excited to join his new squad. On deadline day, he texted a winky-faced emoji to Senators defenseman Jordan Spence as a sign that he was coming. The two were teammates in Los Angeles and grew close through dinners and card games away from the rink.
“I was really confused,” Spence said. “I had never gotten a text like that before from (Foegele). Once I realized that he got traded here, I was really pumped, and we chatted before he even got here.”
The Senators dominated the Seattle Kraken 7-3 Saturday night, with Foegele scoring the game-winning goal in the third period.
“I didn’t even know if it was a game winner,” Foegele said. “I was sitting on the bench (thinking), I don’t know if I’ve been in a game where we had seven goals in a couple of years. Awesome that we got the two points, and we’ve just got to keep it going.”
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Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Laughton contributed a game-tying goal in the second period against the Montreal Canadiens minutes before the intermission. Laughton joined the Kings via trade from the Maple Leafs on Friday, rushing to get his things from his home in downtown Toronto before catching a flight at the airport, only to experience a flight delay.
“It’s what happens in our business, and guys go through it all the time,” Laughton said after the Kings’ 4-3 loss to the Canadiens on Saturday night. “I’m happy to be here (in Los Angeles). And I’m happy to be with this group and try to make a push (for the playoffs). Once you get in, you never know.”
Laughton’s first goal as a King also resulted in teammate Jared Wright’s first NHL point. The Minnesota native made his NHL debut last Monday against Colorado and got the primary assist on Laughton’s goal Saturday.
“I was very happy for him,” Laughton said. “I actually didn’t know. Good kid, skates well. Very happy for him.”
Finally, Strome contributed a goal in the Flames’ 5-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. But the spotlight wasn’t for him alone; another new teammate, Olli Määttä, registered an assist on Strome’s goal, seconds into the game’s second period.
According to the Flames, it’s the first time since 2013 that a scoring play resulted in points for two Flames playing their first games with the franchise. Strome was acquired from Anaheim, while Määttä was acquired from Utah in the MacKenzie Weegar trade. (Weegar also made his debut for Utah on Saturday and picked up an assist in a 5-4 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.)
“It’s been an absolutely insane day,” Strome told the media Saturday after the game. “Busy 24 hours telling my kids I was getting traded. They were getting pretty emotional. Long day. But, as hockey players, the easiest thing to do is to just go out there and play. So, that was the easy part.”
Strome was one of 33 players traded on Friday as part of 20 trades, according to the NHL.
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Julian McKenzie is an NHL staff writer and contributor to the NHL’s news and enterprise team for The Athletic. McKenzie also hosts The Chris Johnston Show with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston. McKenzie is also the writer of the upcoming book, Black Aces, on Black hockey players and people. McKenzie’s work can also be found in The New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, the Montreal Gazette, the Canadian Press, TSN 690, CTV Montreal and more. Follow Julian on Twitter @jkamckenzie
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