Let’s just be honest right up front: The NHL trade deadline might be slightly boring.
That’s not to say the moves leading up to Monday afternoon’s 3 p.m. ET deadline won’t impact the stretch run. It’s just all those moves, it seems, have already been made.
The Boston Bruins made arguably the biggest splash late Sunday night into early morning when they landed Taylor Hall from the Buffalo Sabres. That came a couple of hours after the Toronto Maple Leafs traded for Nick Foligno from Columbus. Speaking of the Blue Jackets, they dealt defenseman David Savard — arguably the top D-man available — to Detroit, who then flipped him to the Tampa Bay Lightning — on Saturday.
While the biggest names already have new addresses, there are still moves to be made Monday, and we’ll be following it all with our NHL trade deadline below.
3:44 p.m.: The Capitals-Red Wings blockbuster is official, and here are the details:
3:30 p.m.: So, after an entire day of waiting and waiting, it sounds like there’s a legitimate blockbuster with Anthony Mantha on his way to Washington, according to Kevin Weekes.
3:19 p.m.: Winnipeg desperately needed help on the blue line and appears to have found it by acquiring Jordie Benn.
3:16 p.m.: Does a Haydn Fleury trade do anything for ya?
3:14 p.m.: Michael Raffl is on the move and is staying in the division.
3:04 p.m.: Depth moves everywhere you look at the buzzer.
3 p.m.: It’s 3 p.m. on the East Coast, and the NHL deadline has come and gone. We’ll likely get some deals trickling in over the next 20 to 30 minutes.
One of those deals is Ben Hutton going from Anaheim to Toronto, per Elliotte Friedman.
2:57 p.m.: The Bruins are done, according to longtime B’s reporter Joe McDonald.
2:48 p.m.: Here’s what’s out there on the Gustafsson-to-Montreal deal.
2:42 p.m.: It looks like the Canadiens are adding to the back end by acquiring defenseman Erik Gustafsson.
Meanwhile, Pierre Le Brun has details on the Sam Bennett trade.
2:40 p.m.: Another minor deal ahead of the deadline, this one between the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames.
2:35 p.m.: Whole lotta nothing going on with less than a half-hour until the deadline.
2:09 p.m.: Carl Soderberg is on the move again, and he’s on his way back to Colorado where he spent some time earlier in his career.
2:05 p.m.: We’re officially less than an hour away from the deadline, and there’s, well, not much going on. In fact, we’re getting farther away from trades being made, as two players are either nearing or have agreed to reported contract extensions.
1:10 p.m.: There are some moving pieces in that Mattias Janmark deal, as it’s reportedly a three-team trade.
12:55 p.m.: A couple of more relatively minor deals look like they’re about to go down, per reports.
12:11 p.m.: What’s this? Another trade?
12:05 p.m.: It looks like we actually have a trade. Or we’re at least getting close to having a trade, as NHL Network’s Kevin Weekes reports the New Jersey Devils will trade defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to the Edmonton Oilers.
That Kulikov was probably the best defenseman widely considered available today tells you where things are at, at least for the moment. It’s a solid depth move, though, for an Oilers team firmly entrenched as the No. 3 seed in the North Division.
11:58 a.m.: Huge news!
We kid, of course, although Victor Mete and Sami Vatanen probably beg to differ. Anyway, a couple of waiver claims counts for news on what’s been the slowest deadline day morning in recent memory.
9:25 a.m.: A good point made here by ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski regarding Arizona forward Conor Garland.
Garland is a player
9 a.m.: This is an interesting tidbit from TSN’s Darren Dreger, and it should give some hope deadline day won’t be incredibly boring.
Obviously, there need to be teams willing to move players, and those teams need trade partners. At the moment, it doesn’t feel like there’s a significant move out there, but as Dreger notes, we could get some intricate deals before the deadline if the financial facilitators are willing to get involved.
8:05 a.m. ET: The Bruins make it official: They have acquired Taylor Hall from the Sabres.
