So far, 2026 has been hockey’s year for sure. The unusually harsh winter with frigid conditions at times even extending into Florida has given the sport the appropriate backdrop for attention. The spirited gold medal runs of the men’s and women’s Olympic teams absolutely riveted the entire nation and produced record-breaking TV audiences even for weekday afternoon and weekend morning time slots. And HEATED RIVALRY has become a de facto cultural phenomenon, the cold hard facts of the camera-shy Entertainment Strategy Guy notwithstanding.
But what ESG does point out–albeit with what even he would allow is a self-limiting and purely quantitative view that Nielsen’s incomplete streaming metrics do not fully capture–is that there is a relativity and a Roman Candle arc to all of this, much as there was when the 4 Nations Cup and the tsurris attached to that last year briefly lifted the sport into daily discourse. We’re now back to the regular NHL season and at least north of the border it’s a huge day, with the league trade deadline looming with a 12 noon PT cutoff. South of the border, not so much.
If you’re indeed a true NHL afficiando you can follow the proceedings through various live updates and coverage from the likes of NHL Network and dedicated feeds from YAHOO! and THE ATHLETIC, among others. And they’re already rife with reminders that there’s been quite a bit of movement of bodies already. FOR THE WIN’s Mary Clarke and Charles Curtin can also catch you up:
While some names have come off the board, we enter Friday with many of the top players still available. The biggest move of the week came when Calgary Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar was moved to the Utah Mammoth as the team looks to hold onto its playoff spot.
As can SB NATION’s Jackie Kay:
Today the Colorado Avalanche continued to reshape their roster for the stretch run and acquired their first new forward in right shot center Nicolas Roy from the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 29-year-old is a good fit for Colorado’s bottom six forward group as he possesses size at 6-foot-four and 201 lbs and is known for his two-way play and face-off ability. The former fourth round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes has scored 20 points in 59 games with Toronto this season after he was acquired in the Mitch Marner trade.
And so can virtually the entire ATHLETIC staff:
The Red Wings have their first trade of the 2025-26 season, and it’s for a familiar face: winger David Perron is coming back to Detroit.
Perron previously played in Detroit from 2022 through 2024, when he was one of the most respected voices in the locker room and a key offensive contributor, nearly helping the Red Wings into the 2024 playoffs. Two years later, he’s hoping to help them get over the hump again after Steve Yzerman traded a 2026 conditional fourth-round pick to acquire him from the Ottawa Senators.
For the dedicated fans in cities like Detroit and Salt Lake City this is big news. In Buffalo, where the Sabres currently possess the second-longest playoff drought of any major professional sports team, the fact that this year’s version currently sits comfortably in a tie for second place among the eight Eastern Conference qualifying playoff teams and yesterday alone pulled off two trades to attempt to get them across at least that line is perhaps the most welcome news they’ve received since Josh Allen yet again fell short of a Super Bowl and a winter from hell was then unleashed on the region.
But if you’re looking for some of the names you got to know well in Milan-Cortina you’re S.O.L. And their teams for the most part aren’t involved either.
A quick look at the current NHL standings shows both Jack Hughes’ New Jersey Devils and Connor Hellebuyck’s Winnipeg Jets well out of playoff contention. Were the season to end today not only would those familiar faces not advance to the post-season, neither would the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers nor the teams representing New York City, downtown Los Angeles and all of Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia and Washington. No Alex Ovechkin. 
No Artemi Panerin, even as he just finally paid dividends in attempting to keep his new Kings teammates in contention with a win that hurts the playoff chances of the lone remaining New York metropolitan area team. And thanks to the Olympics the skew of the schedule has us already at the three-quarters pole as Deadline Day looms. For a change, it’s actually a sprint, not a marathon.
And sorry to tell some of you Johnny and Jane-Come-Latelys, but I haven’t yet heard if any of these folks are planning to switch teams when it comes to their sexualities at the same time many will be donning new sweaters for those they do play hockey for. This is the NHL, not the MLH, and we’re talking about the Canadiens and Bruins, not the Metros nor the Raiders. We’re talking reality here, not fiction.
If that little dig went way over your boards and into the stands like a errant puck, maybe ol’ ESG’s data was more on point that I might want to concede. Perhaps we all will need to pay some attention to what eventually goes down today after all. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are indeed exciting, and it wouldn’t hurt any of us to at least try and catch up on who and what will actually be contending this year.
Courage…