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The NHL's players are back in the Olympics, which means a roster freeze.
The freeze commences Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. ET (12 noon PT), and it might just function like a mini trade deadline.
"No trades will be permitted from this point until 11:59 p.m. ET Feb. 22," Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin writes. "Does that mean we’ll see a mini Trade Deadline play out leading up to Feb. 4? It would give traded players three weeks to sort their lives out and prepare to join their new teams."
One expected layer to this is that teams particularly far out of the playoff race will be quicker to use this window as a chance to get their players traded away.
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The Vancouver Canucks, for example, still have a ton of trade candidates. It doesn't do them any good to keep them around through the Olympics, particularly if anyone were to get hurt while playing in the tournament.
Evander Kane isn't going to the Olympics, but he has a sizable contract relative to some trade candidates. His name was floated throughout January as someone possibly to be moved sooner rather than later.
Vancouver won't be the only team in this kind of situation. A look toward the bottom of the standings can reveal other possibilities here.
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On the flip side, a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs might wait. They're one of the clubs that won't want to admit too early to being a seller.
The NHL will only have a few weeks upon return until the actual trade deadline, so it's definitely safe to expect some movement to happen before the Olympic roster freeze.
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