\"We didn\'t mortgage the future.\" If there was one reoccurring theme in Julien BriseBois\' post-deadline press conference, it was that the Bolts got better this year without sacrificing much for the future. Which, when taken on the whole is completely true. Leaving the organization was Jack Thompson, a 2024 third-round pick, the rights to Ty Taylor, and a 2027 fifth-round pick. Coming into the organization was Anthony Duclair, Matt Dumba, a fourth-round pick in 2025 or 2026 (depending on how Edmonton plays this season), and a 2025 seventh-round pick (JBB loves seventh-round picks, the Lightning currently have eight over the next three drafts). Through Mr. BriseBois\' lens of reality, the Lightning picked up a defenseman that can log 20 minutes a night against tough competition and a speedy top-nine forward that can provide depth scoring at even strength and on the power play. All it cost them was a young player that may top out as a second-pair defenseman and a couple of picks. In other words, less than what it cost them to get Tanner Jeannot last year. Honestly, for a team that had traded off most of their future over the last three or four trade deadlines, it wasn\'t a horrible bit of business. The Lightning are a better team today than they were a week ago. Maybe just marginally, but they are better. At this point in their competitive timeline, that\'s pretty much the most they could have accomplished this season. Had Mikhail Sergachev\'s contract not been on LTIR, which afforded them copious amounts of cap space, it\'s likely that Mr. BriseBois would have passed on trades all together and rolled with the team as is. Still, after four deadlines of the Lightning general manager talking about acquiring players that helped them both now and for the future regardless of the cost, and how he would have felt he wouldn\'t have given the team the best chance to win if he didn\'t overpay for players he wanted (not necessarily in those words), it was odd to hear him talk about the future. That\'s not been a talking point in his previous press conferences following a trade deadline. That\'s just where the Lightning are right now. For four seasons, he\'s done what he could to make the Lightning a competitor for the Stanley Cup. In most cases, it\'s worked out. In some cases (hey, there Tanner) the jury is still out. The success they\'ve enjoyed, the two Stanley Cups, the three Finals, and a first-round loss where they were lucky overtime bounces away from advancing in three of their four losses, are a result of his work. At some point the bill was going to come due, and it looks like this year the Bolts are making their first payment. There is going to be a section of the fan base that wrote the Lightning off once they didn\'t pull off a trade for Noah Hanifin. Each deadline has a player assigned as the Chosen One, whether they deserve it or not, and Hanifin was this years. He is a very good player and Tampa Bay could have used his services, where he would likely have stepped into the second pairing right away. Down the line, when Sergachev was healthy, it would have given them a pretty deep left side of the defense. The Lightning\'s general manager was asked about Hanifin at his press conference and he deferred a direct answer, stating that it would be \"inappropriate\" to talk about a player on another team. We can assume from his \"good, young, prime-age players who play premium positions are very much in demand\" comment that the organization was at least engaged in talks with the Flames about the defenseman. When we step back and take a 1000-foot view of the Lightning, they are still a good hockey club. Yes, on a game-by-game basis they can be frustrating to watch. Still, they are in a playoff spot. They have an elite player in Nikita Kucherov. They have really, really good players in Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Brandon Hagel, and Victor Hedman. Their goaltender is regarded by his peers as the best goalie in the league. They have the tools to make a long run, and unlike last year, there really aren\'t any flawless teams in the Eastern Conference. Get to the playoffs and anything can happen. Florida proved that last year. The Bolts aren\'t the Blackhawks (completely gutted and already on their rebuild) or the Penguins (about to begin their rebuild). There is still a window to a Stanley Cup in their immediate future. Yes, it\'s pretty small, pretty high up, and only cracked enough to let in a breeze, but it\'s still there. The Bolts were a fringe playoff team prior to the deadline and are still pretty much a fringe playoff team. The honest truth is, there wasn\'t going to be a deal that made them more than that. It always takes two sides to make a deal (sometimes three depending on the cap hits involved). We\'ll never know about the trades that fell through, we just have to live with the ones that did happen. Overall, it felt like this year\'s deadline was a little more restrained than some in the past. No deal felt like a massive overpayment, and it seemed like it was more of a buyer\'s market than in years past. JBB touched on that as he mentioned that a lot of teams in the Eastern Conference had expended a lot of future trade capital in previous deadline deals (Hey...it\'s me, I\'m the problem it\'s me). The big names in Hanifin and Jake Guentzel didn\'t bring back the lofty first-round picks that they might have in the past and most of the second and third-tier deals were had for middle round picks. The biggest source of news was in regards to the Vegas Golden Knights and how they legally exploited their $15.9 million in cap space to bring in Tomas Hertl, Hanifin, and Anthony Mantha. Hey, if your GM isn\'t using LTIR to its fullest that\'s on him. Don\'t hate on the teams that make limoncello out of injured player\'s cap space. As for the teams the Lightning are battling down the stretch and could see in the playoffs, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Florida added Kyle Okposo and Vladimir Tarasenko while Toronto picked up Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Connor Dewar. Out of all of those players, Tarasenko is probably the one who will help his team out the most. Steve Yzerman apparently likes his players and stood pat at the deadline. While it hurt to see the Bruins pick up Pat Maroon, he doesn\'t really add much more than veteran leadership in the locker room at this point. Value that as you will. Andrew Peeke is an okay depth pick-up, but Boston is going to dance with the dates that got them there and see how it works. The New Jersey Devils were all over the board, shipping out Tyler Toffoli and depth defender Colin Miller, but picked up Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen. Like the Red Wings, the Islanders didn\'t make a move, relying on the players they have adjusting to new coach Patrick Roy\'s system being enough of a boost to get them into the wild card hunt. Mr. BriseBois did speak briefly about the possibility of re-signing the pending unrestricted free agents that he acquired, a la Nick Paul a few seasons ago, but it felt more like lip service than anything else. The fact that he went after a couple of UFAs instead of his beloved players with multiple years of control, could bode well for another looming piece of business that has hung over the club for a year now - the re-signing of Steven Stamkos. Had Mr. BriseBois traded for anyone with term on their contract, that would have shrunk the available cap room to re-sign his captain. Now he doesn\'t have to worry about that. With the deadline passed, and no drastic RFA contracts to deal with, he can focus on coming up with a new deal for Stamkos. It\'s doubtful we hear anything prior to the end of the season, but that doesn\'t mean things aren\'t happening behind the scenes with the Lightning brass and Stamkos\' agent, Don Meehan (who happens to be part of the agency that counts Dumba as a client). It\'s still 50/50 in my opinion on Stamkos coming back. He\'s having another strong season with 55 points (24 goals, 31 assists) in 62 games. The 5v5 scoring might not be there, but he\'s still a threat on the power play. Other teams out there (cough, Detroit, cough) could come calling with a deal that just doesn\'t make sense for the Lightning to match or beat. It would be brutal to see him go and wear another team\'s uniform, but this is a business and each side has to do what\'s best for them. As much as everyone loves to grade trade deadlines (The Athletic gave them 4 out 10 while ESPN gave them a B) before the dust had settled, the success or failure of the moves made last week depend on who raises the Stanley Cup. Julien BriseBois did what he could with what he had, and we have to wait and see if it\'s enough.