Communication key to helping new players after NHL Trade Deadline

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2025-26 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Dan Bylsma, former coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Kraken and assistant with the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings, discusses how a coach can help assimilate a player acquired at the NHL Trade Deadline for a Stanley Cup Playoff push.

Thinking back to when I was a coach, and when I was a player, whenever the team acquired a player before the NHL Trade Deadline, I think almost every player and every situation is a little bit different for the coach. 

In the six years I was with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and we were a Stanley Cup Playoff team, a contending team, we were always looking to add. I think almost every year I had one or two defensemen come in at the deadline, but they were depth defensemen.

When we won the Stanley Cup in 2009, we added forwards Billy Guerin, Chris Kunitz and Craig Adams and defenseman Philippe Boucher. Each of those guys is a little bit different in what they bring to the team, what they mean to the team, and why they're being added. So, it's maybe a different conversation with the coach each of those times. 

One of the most important things is having the general manager and the coach on the same page as to what the team needs are, how the player fits and how you are going to play him. You might talk about, “Where are we going to play this guy? How is going to fit in?”

It’s important organizationally to have clear communication about how this player fills a need for our team. It's tough for a coach to fit a round peg in a square hole. It just doesn't work very well in terms of trying to assimilate the player if the coach doesn't think the player fits the team’s needs.

It’s also important to have communication between the coach and the player about the role that the player fits into. When they're stepping into the room two-thirds or more through the season, letting the player know how we want to play the system and, more importantly, the standard we want to play with is critical.

The coach then needs to give the player the opportunity to fit into the team in the 20-25 games that are remaining heading into the playoffs. Almost every player is different and has a different nuance to every other player coming to your team.

Some might be in a big role. Some might be in a depth role. They might be a third or fourth-line center in a checking role. Some might be playing on the power play or in a penalty killing role. 

The trade for Jarome Iginla is a good example. We were at the deadline in 2013, and we had some options as to what we were trying to add and what we thought we needed to add. We got Brenden Morrow about four or five days from the deadline, and we were also in on Jarome.

With Morrow, we knew we could get it done, so we did it. He fills a need. He’s a veteran. He's a power forward. He could play up and down the lineup, has played with good players, he’s played on the power play. It wasn't a power-play need for us, but he's been on the power play in the net-front area. 

With Iginla, we didn’t feel like we were super close to the finish line in that mix of teams trying to get him, so we went with Morrow. Then, a day later, general manager Ray Shero was like, “Do we still want to be in on Jarome?”

We thought about where Jarome would fit on our team, who he would potentially play with on a line, where he would fit, potentially, on a power play. We had some injuries that year, so we were also feeling a depth issue where we did need some good players. 

So, the answer was, “Yes, we have a need. We know where he fits. He can add to our group in these areas. So, yeah, we're still in on Jarome.”

Then, Jarome happened and then we had more players around than we anticipated going into the deadline. So, we get Morrow and Iginla in and have conversations with both guys about, “Here is where you fit and why we wanted to get you. This is what your role is.”

At that time, we had a bunch of injuries. Sidney Crosby was out, Evgeni Malkin was out and we had some other injuries, so for a good portion of the last 25 games, they played major roles for our team and on the power play and really added to our group.

As far as systems, it’s difficult to throw too much at the new players right away. As coaches, we've looked at the system a million times. We've memorized it over and over again. But when you lay it all out in a one-hour conversation with a player, they're going to take in only so much of it and if that's where their brain will be when they go out to play the game, that's probably not a good situation.

So, generally, when you acquire a new player, you give them one or two things to focus on and tell them to just go out and play. Having said that, there’s not major significant differences from system to system. We've all played most systems at one point in time.

So, it's not like it's earth shattering to say, “We're playing a 1-2-2 “or “We're playing a 2-3 and just concentrate on playing your game.” Just let a good player play.

The last thing is that it’s the coach's job to have clear and frequent communication with the players already on the team who were impacted by the trade. There are 25 guys in that room that have been playing together for 60 games, maybe longer, and they're affected by bringing someone in as well. A player might be displaced off the power play or displaced off a line with Malkin or Crosby, and it affects not only that person, but it also affects the group. 

The coach needs to be cognizant of that situation and communicate not only with the team, but the individual players that are affected by bringing in a new guy.

I was a player on the 2003 Anaheim Ducks and had been a Duck for three years. When we got to the trade deadline, I was kind of dealing with an injury, and we acquired Rob Niedermayer and Steve Thomas. One goes in as the second-line center, and the other goes in as the third-line right wing. I was a wing in the bottom of the lineup, and that displaced me from a regular spot. 

There are emotions for the player. There are emotions for everybody, for one of their teammates they’ve battled with for years or maybe just 60 games prior who is now not next to them or he's out of the lineup or you don't penalty kill with him anymore. 

Going through that as a player helped immensely when I was a coach. I had to deal with those emotions. They make you more in tune to the whole picture of what's happening when a player is introduced into the team at any particular time, but in particular at the end of the season, when you are pushing for the playoffs, and you are expected to win some games in the playoffs.