NHL Trade Deadline: Latest news, rumours and analysis

4:15 PM: Is it safe to go outside? Are we done? I feel like we might be done.

4:00 PM: It’s an hour after the deadline and we are extremely still not done.

Chris Wideman’s quest to play for the entire NHL this year continues as he moves to his fourth team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. You may remember him from the Senators infamous Uber video. That was THREE teams ago. Time flies.

3:50 PM: We’re still going. Literally why was the deadline at 3pm?

The Maple Leafs are making the bet that Nic Petan can add a little offensive oomph in exchange for Par Lindholm.

Meanwhile, the Canucks have moved on from Jonathan Dahlen, scooping Linus Karlsson out of San Jose. We may be here all night.

3:44 PM: THIS IS THE BIG ONE.

Bogdan Kiselevich is on the move. The Winnipeg Jets are officially Cup favourites.

3:40 PM: Still going!

The Jets pick up defender Nathan Beaulieu for a 6th. Not to speculate about what this means regarding how injured Josh Morrissey, but people are speculating this might mean that Josh Morrissey is pretty injured.

3:28 PM: The Canucks have shed Erik Gudbranson, moving him off to Pittsburgh.

Tanner Pearson is rumoured to be the piece coming back the other way, but honestly every Canucks fan I know would be happy solely with the movement of Gudbranson. Getting a player back is icing on the cake.

3:22 PM: The 20 minutes before and after the deadline are way better than the several hours that preceded it.

Not that a 7th round pick and a lower end guy are huge moves but it’s being compared to literally nothing.

3:10 PM: There are reportedly “a lot” of trades still to be processed and they are flowing in.

Blueliner Michael Del Zotto is on the way to St. Louis in exchange for a 6th round pick as they continue to push for the playoffs, and Boston grabs another forward in Marcus Johansson. The Devils pick up a 2nd round pick this year and a 4th in 2020 in exchange for Johansson, a haul they are likely pretty happy with.

We’re still not done! Things are getting crazy.

3:05 PM: This is what it’s all about!

The Nashville Predators scoop Wayne Simmonds at the literal last minute. The Western Conference playoffs are going to be wild.

Ryan Hartman and a pick coming back the other way.

3:02 PM: The final horn blows! We’re into the last second trade call territory. Amazingly, Mark Stone is already ready to stick around in Vegas, according to PLB.

Not to, uh, insult Ottawa (it’s a fine place!) but moving to Vegas from Ottawa in February probably feels decent.

2:45 PM: This is IT.

Vegas wins the Mark Stone sweepstakes, and the entire idea of NHL Trade Deadline television is saved. Anybody who thought “Ah, Vegas is going to build slow and try and go from the ground up,” is dead wrong. They IMMEDIATELY made the Stanley Cup Finals and now they are loading up with the very biggest piece available at the deadline. Additionally, Bob McKenzie is on fire in the final 20 minutes of the deadline.

Erik Brannstrom appears to be a big part of the return for Stone, and he’s a darn good one. He lit it up at the World Juniors and has looked just as good in the AHL with 28 points in 41 games.

Dreger followed up that an extension with Vegas for Stone is “highly likely”.

2:42 PM: Here come the trades! The Wild and Preds swap Mikael Granlund for Kevin Fiala.

Granlund has 49 points this season, and Fiala has 32. It’s a move to get a little younger for Minnesota, as the 22-year-old is entering RFA status. The 26-year-old Granlund has another year at $5.75M.

2:30 PM: We’re within half an hour of the deadline now, things starting to move in faster and faster.

Oscar Fantenberg, a lefty shot defender is headed to the Flames. He’s been playing about 16 minutes a night in the Kings lineup and is likely just a bolster to the blueline depth for a Calgary team that hopes to make a deep run in the playoffs. It’s a decent insurance policy, but probably not one that moves the needle from ‘quiet deadline’ to ‘major moves’. The Kings are picking up a 4th rounder from Calgary in return.

Still, there’s more time!

2:15 PM: STONE WATCH. It has seemed all day that Mark Stone being moved is an inevitability and the latest dispatch is that the reigning Western Conference champions are the lead horse in the race.

Just the rumour that Vegas is ramping up talks brings out some competition from Calgary and Nashville, but without a doubt this is the biggest story left to tell as we crawl towards the deadline.

1:51 PM: Here we go, we are starting to heat up a little bit.

Everybody wants a righty shot defenceman, and the Blue Jackets just landed theirs, scooping Adam McQuaid from the New York Rangers. Columbus is really owning this week, you’ve gotta tip your cap to it.

The trickling in details are a pair of picks, a 4th and a 7th. An affordable rental for a team that has shown no hesitation to add as the deadline nears.

1:33 PM: Still alive! Still here. We have rumblings of a trade. Elliotte Friedman has the details on the Colorado Avalanche landing Derick Brassard.

The Panthers centre has 19 points in 50 games this season, and has only been with Florida for 10 games. He started the year as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he collected the bulk of his points. Things could be heating up as we near 90 minutes to the buzzer.

The third round pick headed the other way is for the 2020 draft. Pierre LeBrun has added that Colorado picks up a 6th round pick in this swap.

12:38 PM: This, by definition: Is technically a trade.

As is this:

Not gonna lie: Pretty dry out here right now! This is obviously a build to a crazy final two hours, I’m guessing… Assuming… Hoping.

12:04 PM: As we cross the three-hour barrier, we are running a little thin on content. Let’s check in on Sens practice to see who is actually skating.

Not Mark Stone! Alright, that’s sort of something. Honestly, isn’t it sort of an insult at this point if the Sens are willing to play you? Like, “hey go ahead and suit up, nobody is interested in trading for you.”

11:20 AM: A trade! Dreger gets on the board with Jordan Weal headed to Montreal.

Michael Chaput is reportedly going the other way, according to Friedge. Your mileage may vary on how excited this makes you. Weal has 11 points this season, while Chaput has 5. Both are 26-year-old centres, but hey: This is technically a trade so you’ve got to love that about it.

11:12 AM: The Kevin Hayes to Winnipeg deal is official.

11:00 AM: We’ve got our own acquisition to announce!

Dimitri Filipovic has joined our team and will be answering your questions on our twitter account in a few moments. This is unquestionably bigger than Keith Kinkaid, very likely bigger than Kevin Hayes, and honestly probably not as big as Mark Stone.

10:48 AM: The Mark Stone drama continues.

CJ tells us that the Flames were an almost-ran on Stone last night, and it now looks like they have shifted focus away and given up on that. Will there be any suitors left for him by the end of the day??? (Yes.)

10:29 AM: The potential trade below on Hayes is apparently good to go. The conditional pick is a 4th rounder IF the Jets go on to win the Stanley Cup. Is there anything better than wild pick conditions? I really don’t think so.

10:25 AM: Progress on the Kevin Hayes to Winnipeg front. Uncle Bob is calling it A 2019 first-round pick, Brendan Lemieux and a conditional pick.

This is supposedly the end of the line for the Jets being in on Mark Stone so adjust your expectations on where Stone is going accordingly.

10:18 AM: Rumours! Real rumours!

You had to know someone was going to jump in to make a deal for Kevin Hayes. Well, maybe you didn’t HAVE to know, but now you know, you know? (I’ve had a third coffee)

10:08 AM: I feel the need to draw attention to the fact that TSN created a mascot and twitter account for this event, called Tradey.

Trying to cash in on the Gritty clout with an intentionally grotesque mascot with the purpose to be nothing but nightmare fuel is a gutsy – if wholly unnecessary – move to make. I want to give a nod of solidarity to both the person in the costume and the person responsible for running the twitter account. Hey, you’re both technically involved in deadline day coverage! A career mission accomplished for sure.

10:01 AM: Underrated joy of deadline day: Updates on who is and isn’t skating during practice. An otherwise ridiculous thing to keep track of becomes super fun for a few short hours.

No word on whether any team’s future 2nd round picks are present at their morning skate.

9:31 AM: Let us celebrate the joys of insider terminology with this absolute beauty of a tweet that doesn’t really say anything.

On the surface you can take this as “Boston might want to trade for Eric Staal” but the terminology of taking a long look just makes me smile. I’m picturing the entire Bruins scouting staff staring at a photo of Staal pinned to a white board until their eyes hurt.

9:05 AM: We’ve only just begun, folks. The Devils shipped out Keith Kinkaid before most people started their work day, and Dreger is here to let you know that they will also be trading Marcus Johansson before the day is through. Don’t everybody line up at once to give away a 2nd rounder for him.

8:56 AM: Let’s go! I’ve had exactly two coffees already and not a moment too soon, as we’re off and running early a pre-9am trade. The Devils have sent goalie Keith Kinkaid to Columbus for a 2022 fifth-round pick. Consider the tone for the day officially set.

Done Deals

Sharks acquire Gustav Nyquist from Red Wings for 2nd-round pick (2019), conditional 3rd-round pick (2020)