The Atlantic Division is and always has been an absolute arms race. Gone are the Boston Bruins from the equation, they’ve joined the selling ranks, but the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, and even the Montreal Canadiens are ready to fill the void.

The Toronto Maple Leafs put in some work, addressing holes in the lineup, but whether or not you can say they’ve upgraded at the same rate as the Florida teams or gambled as much as the Senators did is questionable. Here’s a brief breakdown of the power shift in the Atlantic competition:

The Contenders:

Florida Panthers

Brad Marchand, Seth Jones, Vitek Vanecek, Nico Sturm, Jesse Puljujarvi

The Panthers paid a steep price for Seth Jones before the deadline, which might seem steep to those who aren’t exactly believers in Jones.

The logic behind the Jones move is pretty simple. On a blueline that already features Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling, no one is asking Jones to be a true number one like he’s been asked to be everywhere else. He’s joining a strong blueline and really coming in to replace Brandon Montour, which he is more than capable of doing.

Longer term, Jones is also a safety net for the Panthers in negotiations with Ekblad this summer and no matter how much you value prospects and draft picks, Jones’ remaining term at $7M AAV is far more valuable to the Panthers than a late first round pick.

The eleventh hour brought the addition of Brad Marchand, who could not fit in better with a team that already touts Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett. Accepting that Marchand is older rental, this is absolutely the Panthers loading up and being ready to defend their title in the short term.

Throw in the fact that they landed their Anthony Stolarz replacement with Vitek Vanecek, strong centre depth with Nico Sturm (a strong Lorentz replacement), and a good gamble with Jesse Puljujarvi, the Panthers will be ready to defend their title this spring, especially when Matthew Tkachuk miraculously heals right before the start of the playoffs.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Yanni Gourde, Oliver Bjorkstrand

The Lightning certainly paid a price. A couple of firsts and a second for Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand is a lot and Michael Eyssimont isn’t exactly a nothing player either, but the Lightning saw their opportunity to make this another big year for them and are going for it.

The Lightning lack the depth that the Panthers or Leafs have, but the high end of Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy getting stronger with capable players spilling onto their third line is a dangerous situation for the teams destined to face them in the playoffs.

Tampa is a team that recognizes its window is closing and they are damned well going to make the most of the last of it. Considering they have a savvy GM and one of the most respected coaches in hockey, going big made a ton of sense even if the price was steep.

The Wildcard Hopefuls:

Ottawa Senators

Dylan Cozens, Fabian Zetterlund

The move of Dylan Cozens for Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker initially looks like a step back for the Senators, and one committed to the long term and reshuffling rather than a pure upgrade. That might not be a wrong take. The Senators save a little money, get marginally younger, but this is about chasing upside and fit in their top six and Cozens does that. The trade doesn’t make them more competitive for the wild card but doesn’t take them out of the race either.

As for Zetterlund, he’s having a great season, and has cemented himself as a top six winger. After an interesting and significant move with Cozens, the Zetterlund move established that the Senators were in fact buyers at the deadline and making a clear grab at the wild card spot.

Detroit Red Wings

Petr Mrazek, Craig Smith

It seemed like the Wings were moving a lot of salary out in hopes of making a big splash. Mrazek and Smith are decidedly not that and once again we are left wondering what on earth Steve Yzerman is looking to accomplish in Detroit.

The Wings swapping Ville Husso and Joe Velano for Smith and Mrazek sets them up for the offseason without hurting their current state. They aren’t out of it, they just aren’t more in it.

Montreal Canadiens

Nada

As much as it would be fun to laugh at the Canadiens for not pushing for a playoff spot and accepting their fate, re-signing Jake Evans was the right move and with adding Ivan Demidov next season they are going to be tough next year as well as having as good a shot as teams like Detroit at the final wild card spot.

Overall:

Brad Marchand and Seth Jones are certainly big splashes but stepping away from the name recognition angle the Leafs are pretty close to those additions wtih Carlo and Laughton. The biggest difference come playoff time will be when the Panthers get to pull Matthew Tkachuk off LTIR and have a truly stacked lineup. Without LTIR to navigate, the Leafs did pretty well keeping up and arguably addressed their most pressing needs better than the Lightning did with Bjorkstrand and Gourde.

It will be about how the pieces fit together in the next month and a half that will ultimately determine who had the best deadline and if that seems like a cop out answer, that’s because it is.

Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!