They're not the only ones who will be on the move, however, and it's not just adapting to a new system and teammates on the ice that will be the hardest changes for all involved.
"I think when the normal fan looks at a trade, and I know they hype these trades up," Bruins center Chris Kelly said in a recent interview with NESN.com. "In Canada they have a whole day, or it's gotten to the point where they have a whole month designed [to hype] this one day. They just look at the player coming in, but there's obviously a lot more that goes into it."
"Families and kids have to adjust, and it's probably harder on them than it is on the player," continued Kelly, who has two daughters, Presley and Evynn, with his wife, Krissy. "The player comes in and he has a support network right away with his teammates, whereas a lot of times it's put on the wife or girlfriend to tie up loose ends at home and deal with all those things. It is difficult."
Kelly came to the Bruins shortly before last year's trade deadline. He was fortunate to come to a locker room that welcomed newcomers and tried to put him at ease quickly, but it was still an adjustment after spending the first decade of his professional career in Ottawa's system.
"I think just getting used to your surroundings," Kelly said of the toughest part of the transition. "You've got 20 new faces, a new system. Especially if you come in midseason, the team's established and it's a tight group, so as easy as anybody tries to make it, it's still difficult to leave somewhere you've been and come in to a new dressing room."
Kelly and fellow deadline acquisitions Rich Peverley and Tomas Kaberle did have an advantage last year. Not only did they join the team together so that they didn't have to go through the transition alone, but they also came to Boston just as the Bruins were embarking on a six-game road trip, giving them a chance to immediately bond with their new teammates.
"I thought it was really important for us to join the team when we did," Kelly said. "When you're at home there's so many other things that go on. Guys have families and other obligations when they're at home. But when you're on the road, you're together. You go out to dinner together. You go to lunch together. So we were thrown right into the fire and were able to get to know our new teammates."
Daniel Paille wasn't a deadline acquisition, but he was traded to the Bruins from Buffalo during the season back in October 2009. Instead of joining the Bruins on the road, he had to leave a Sabres trip and report directly to the Bruins without stopping at home, then quickly adjust to all of the new people in his life beyond just his new teammates.
"I was on the road when I was traded, so I had to come straight here," Paille said. "It's just getting to know new people, and that's not just players. It's staff people, medical staff and training staff and equipment staff. You get to know their routine, their day-to-day, how they do things. You get to know the players on the road and in games, but for me the tough part was getting to know everyone else."
Paille made his Bruins debut at home against Nashville, but it might as well have been a road trip as he, like most players traded, was living out of a suitcase in a Boston hotel upon his arrival.
"I lived in the hotel for three weeks," Paille said. "That's the thing, too, when you're traded. You've got to live in the hotel for a while until you can find your own place."
That can be even harder at the deadline, when crunch time hits in the quest for playoff positioning down the stretch. For many players dealt at the deadline, the hotel will remain home for the rest of the season, while families remain behind rather than uproot children from their current schools so late in the year.
"At the deadline I think there's a cutoff point where you're allowed to stay at the hotel the whole time and you don't have to find a place," Paille said. "It sucks, but I think by then the season's almost over and you just focus on playing."
When dealing with looking for a new home, changing schools and everything else that switching cities entails after a trade, playing hockey is the easy part.
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