Help wanted, but was it found?

At yesterday's trade deadline, there were plenty of teams seeking help for a potential postseason push, and plenty of teams pulled the trigger. But did they actually improve their chances?

Puck Prospectus took a look at what exactly each deal means for the teams, using their GVT metric to calculate how many points the added player(s) projects to contribute to his new team in the standings. We calculated points added thusly: In a league averaging 2.7 goals per team per game, it takes roughly 2.7 goals to obtain an extra point in the standings. Since GVT is measured directly in goals contributed, 2.7 extra points of GVT are worth one point in the standings.

So let's see who helped themselves on deadline day as we evaluate some of the more notable trades from Wednesday.

Note: All standings point changes are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Atlantic Division
by Timo Seppa

Pittsburgh Penguins

Deal: Penguins get RW Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto Maple Leafs for W Luca Caputi and D Martin Skoula

Impact: +7.0 GVT, 3 standings points for Pittsburgh

To see who helped themselves and who hurt themselves in the playoff chase, you must be an ESPN Insider.

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